Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 40

Drawing spiritual energy into the body?
Gui Changshou’s words made Xiong Lanlan, who was about to shake her leg, suddenly freeze. She hurriedly lowered her head to look at Wang Minger, who was sitting on the top of her foot. Not only was there a slight movement above the little girl’s head, but even the air around her whole body seemed to ripple faintly.
Was this drawing spiritual energy into the body?
Xiong Lanlan, who was in the center of the airflow, felt completely helpless as a bear.
“Just do not move.” From the distance, A-Bai arrived beside Xiong Lanlan in a few hops. She leaned close and looked at the little girl sitting cross-legged on the bear’s foot. “This looks like sudden enlightenment. How can watching fish being caught lead to sudden enlightenment? What did she say just now? Something about eating?”
Xiong Lanlan: “…”
“She said she was preparing to become the strongest person, and then she could eat whoever she wanted.” Gui Changshou flipped himself over and crawled down from Xiong Lanlan’s foot.
A-Bai froze for a moment. After a while, she stroked her paws together and praised, “Good child. Very promising.”
For new disciples, drawing spiritual energy into the body was a major matter. But in Yuan Zhaoyang and Zihui’s eyes, it was already ordinary. Seeing that A-Bai had gone over, the two of them withdrew their gazes and continued what they were doing.
The few children who had not picked up small knives to strip fish scales gathered around Xiong Lanlan, wanting to see what drawing spiritual energy into the body looked like. Most of the children who were already cutting fish scales hesitated for only a short time before lowering their heads and moving faster.
The road of cultivation was long. Everyone had their own methods and chances.
Lin Mianmian, who was observing a fish corpse, heard A-Bai say that Wang Minger had entered a state of sudden enlightenment. This made Lin Mianmian care even more about whether, after coming to this cultivation world, she still had her wood-element core.
When Lin Mianmian had first crossed into this other world and attached herself to the grass body, she had also tried to use her ability. But her body had been empty. Later, in Yingxian City, some strange airflow had crashed into her body and pushed her to turn into a human. Yet she still could not use her ability. Because of this, Lin Mianmian had always felt that her level-five wood ability belonged to the apocalypse and had nothing to do with the present her. Until today, when she saw the Red Essence Five-Scale Fish, almost exactly the same as the ones from the apocalypse.
Looking at the fish corpses before her, with the dark red little scales removed by Zihui from the head, Lin Mianmian suddenly remembered something. She had always thought she could not use her ability because she had crossed over and no longer had her wood-element core. But she had forgotten another possibility. If the core’s ability energy was completely drained, then the ability could not be used either.
In the apocalypse, the amount of ability energy inside the body could slowly recover with rest. But if someone kept using an ability until the energy inside the body was completely dried up, then no matter how long they rested afterward, it could not naturally recover. In that situation, one could only swallow a zombie crystal core or a crystal core from a mutated animal or plant to first add back some energy, then continue resting and recovering.
In simple words, if ability energy was compared to water, then even if only one drop of water remained inside the body, given enough time, it could recover into a pond. But if even the final drop of water was used up, then unless outside force brought in some new drops, no water would appear no matter what.
During the apocalypse, Lin Mianmian had held a non-combat post and did not have many crystal cores. After using her ability, she had always relied on natural recovery. Over time, although she knew that completely dried-up ability energy could not naturally recover, she had long stopped paying much attention to it.
And now, Lin Mianmian very much wanted to know. If she could get a crystal core with no element, or a wood-element crystal core, then… could her ability recover?
Above the river, Yuan Zhaoyang pulled up two more nets of fish and threw them onto the bank. She glanced casually at the riverbank and saw Lin Mianmian crouching beside a pile of fish corpses, touching the bodies while staring into space.
So after loving soft fur, what new hobby had she gained?
Yuan Zhaoyang glanced at the hard, cold fish corpses covering the ground. What was there to touch? Were they better to touch than a cat? She was touching them with a foolish face. Even when she touched a cat, Yuan Zhaoyang had never seen her look this foolish. Did Flatbread, Fried Dough, and Little Sesame in her courtyard know about her touching fish corpses with a blank face, and with a faint excitement hidden in that blankness? Oh, anyway, Rice Ball knew. Tch, who was Rice Ball?
Yuan Zhaoyang, who had contradicted herself, was not very happy. Her fish-catching speed became even faster.
At this time, in order not to look too strange among the crowd, Lin Mianmian pulled herself out of her thoughts, picked up a small knife, and began stripping fish scales.
Even dead, Red Essence Five-Scale Fish scales clung tightly to the body and were very hard to remove. Lin Mianmian noticed that the knives Yuan Zhaoyang had given everyone had black blades, with what seemed like golden lines flowing through them. They did not look like ordinary knives. Lin Mianmian casually drew one across a stone on the ground. With just a light cut, the stone was sliced like tofu.
But even with a knife like this, stripping fish scales was still very difficult. Cutting the place where fish scale and fish body connected met heavy resistance. The force that bounced back almost shook Lin Mianmian’s hand numb.
Even though Lin Mianmian used all her strength, by the time she stripped off one fish scale, Yuan Zhaoyang had already pulled up seven or eight more nets of fish. If they relied only on the manpower of the new disciples, they might not finish stripping these fish scales in ten days.
By the time Yuan Zhaoyang had caught all the adult Red Essence Five-Scale Fish in the river, Lin Mianmian had only removed four fish scales. Among the new disciples, the one who had removed the most had only taken six or seven.
As promised, Yuan Zhaoyang let the new disciples take away the fish scales they had removed themselves. Then she took an iron box from her storage bag, opened the lid, and blew lightly. A cloud of red powder floated out of the box and drifted before Yuan Zhaoyang. She flicked her fingertip. A cluster of flames curled around the powder and instantly grew into a large ball of fire. Yuan Zhaoyang waved her hand, and the large fireball flew into the air. It quickly expanded, flew above the mountain of fish corpses, and by the time it dove down, it was like a huge curtain of flame.
The moment it touched, it burned.
“Using a cultivator’s fire with Scorched-Pond Red-Mud Scorpion powder from the Endless Sand Sea of the Western Wastes can temporarily create half the effect of normal earth fire used in artifact refining. This kind of false earth fire is not enough for refining tools, but it can be used for the first processing of refining materials. Like these fish. Their meat is hard, they have many bones, they cannot be eaten, and they are useless. The only useful things on their whole bodies are the five scales. Zihui already took one, so each fish still has four scales left. Burn them with this false earth fire, and everything besides the scales can be burned to ash. Later, dig out the roughly refined fish scales, blow the ash into the river to nourish the little snails and shrimp, and the matter of catching Red Essence Five-Scale Fish will be done.” A-Bai, who was crouched beside Xiong Lanlan’s foot, was still very responsible as she explained Yuan Zhaoyang’s actions.
The disciples who had gone to strip fish scales had already returned to A-Bai’s side with their scales. Thinking of how hard it had been to strip the scales just now, then looking at how easily Yuan Zhaoyang burned the fish, plus… Wang Minger’s sudden enlightenment, everyone stayed silent. But their hearts were stirred with a desire to work harder.
The fire began burning from the top of the mountain of fish corpses and spread quickly. Soon, the piles and stretches of fish corpses along the bank all began to burn. A strange roasted-meat smell also drifted through the air.
“Can they not be eaten?” Lin Mianmian looked at the rather grand scene of burning fish and murmured to herself.
“What, do you want to eat them?” Yuan Zhaoyang had appeared beside Lin Mianmian at some point and happened to hear the young girl’s words.
“No… no.” Lin Mianmian was startled by Yuan Zhaoyang suddenly answering. She denied it by instinct, then felt she had done it too deliberately and added, “Did A-Bai not say they cannot be eaten? The jade token given to us before also said that eating them could make us explode and die or something.”
Yuan Zhaoyang narrowed her eyes and looked at Lin Mianmian, as if trying to see from her face whether she truly wanted to eat them. She kept looking until Lin Mianmian could not hold on and lowered her head. Only then did Yuan Zhaoyang slowly speak. “It is not that they absolutely cannot be eaten. As A-Bai said, Red Essence Five-Scale Fish have thick meat and many bones. Among spirit beasts, they are a type with no real food value. Rather than saying they cannot be eaten, it would be better to say this fish tastes bad, so no one eats it. There are too many edible kinds of spirit beasts. Naturally, everyone dislikes this kind with a poor taste. As for exploding and dying… that warning is probably to stop new disciples who have not drawn spiritual energy into their bodies from catching and cooking them carelessly. In truth, any ingredient can be eaten by you if it is handled properly.”
It was just that the handling process was troublesome, and after handling it, not much nutrition remained. The taste was only average too.
So it could still be eaten? The Food Classic said that after processing, it should be delicious. Then… had they ever heard of the Food Classic?
Lin Mianmian had too many questions, but did not dare ask them one by one. After thinking for a long time, Lin Mianmian carefully said, “Even after it is handled properly, it still does not taste good?”
Hm? So she really did want to eat it?
“Well, if it is handled properly, it is all right. I will go check the fire.” After Yuan Zhaoyang finished speaking, she looked at Lin Mianmian, who seemed full of expectation, and quickly walked toward the fire mountain as if she were hurrying to inspect it.
On Xiong Lanlan’s side, Wang Minger’s drawing spiritual energy into the body seemed close to the end. A-Bai saw that this side was almost done, and the fire mountain had also started burning on the other side. Her introduction was finished too. She thought she would tell Yuan Zhaoyang she was leaving first.
Who knew that just as the rabbit lifted her face and had not even found where Yuan Zhaoyang was, she received a sound transmission.
The little rabbit face that had been about to sneak away happily fell at once.
It would have been fine if Yuan Zhaoyang only said, “I am leaving first.” It would also have been fine if she left a sentence like, “Remember to use ice to seal the fire at the end and pick up the fish scales.” But why did this rabbit also have to keep Lin Mianmian here for two hours and not let her go back to the courtyard? Where was Yuan Zhaoyang going to wander? In two hours, the sky would be dark. How was A-Bai supposed to keep Lin Mianmian here?
Seeing that Yuan Zhaoyang had disappeared in every direction, the little white rabbit flopped down in anger.
“What? What? Is something wrong with her?” Xiong Lanlan saw A-Bai’s expression suddenly change, then saw that the airflow around Wang Minger seemed to be slowly weakening, and became nervous at once.
“Her? She is almost done. Ah, almost done.” A-Bai, who had been lying close to Wang Minger beside Xiong Lanlan’s foot, sprang up in a rabbit flip and quickly hopped away.
“What? If she is almost done, why are you running?” Xiong Lanlan, who had been standing in the same posture to avoid disturbing Wang Minger, was almost frightened by A-Bai’s strange action.
“You…” The little white rabbit, already far away, had just been about to reply. But in the next moment, she abruptly stopped speaking and covered her rabbit nose with both little white paws.
Xiong Lanlan’s heart was pounding wildly, and before she could keep asking, a thick stench rushed over her face and almost knocked the whole bear unconscious.
A-Bai kindly changed from standing on two feet to standing like a crane on one leg. She stretched out her right hind leg and kindly pointed at Xiong Lanlan’s foot.
Xiong Lanlan, who was nearly fainting from the smell, numbly lowered her head. She saw that the little child who had been clean on her foot was now suddenly covered in a layer of thick mud. That was where the heavy stink came from.
How stinky was it?
Put it this way. Xiong Lanlan only lowered her head and glanced once, and her eyes burned with pain. The stink made tears stream out.
Good thing she was used to hanging Wang Minger on her leg fur, not carrying her on her head, Xiong Lanlan thought thankfully while crying.