Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 42

Returning to Yuan Zhaoyang’s side of the matter, after she “saw” that Lin Mianmian wanted to eat Red Essence Five-Scale Fish, she circled behind the already burning mountain of fish corpses and pulled out some fish in the middle that had not yet caught fire. From among them, she picked two that looked pleasing to the eye. Then she sent A-Bai a voice transmission, packed up the fish, went to Qingxin Hall to take a few things, and hurried back to the courtyard at Hengshui Peak.
Red Essence Five-Scale Fish truly was not a good ingredient. Although Qingxin Hall’s stoves had stable earth fire for cooking spirit beasts and spiritual plants, if Yuan Zhaoyang cooked Red Essence Five-Scale Fish there, it would definitely draw attention from higher up in the sect. After all, she was not an official disciple of the Five Elements Sect. When doing strange things like this, Yuan Zhaoyang was still somewhat cautious. So she only took a few Creeping River Vines, one piece of Underground Yellow, and a small handful of Luminous Shell Salt from Qingxin Hall before returning to Hengshui Peak to cook the fish.
Most foods made from spirit beasts and spiritual plants could nourish a cultivator’s body. For Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples, eating more of these foods could make their bodies tougher and make absorbing and moving spiritual energy safer and smoother. It helped cultivation quite well. Of course, aside from this common support, some ingredients could also have a certain effect on the spiritual energy and spiritual roots inside a cultivator’s body. But generally, only high-level spirit beasts and spiritual plants could have such an effect.
As a low-level ingredient, after being cooked, Red Essence Five-Scale Fish could at most nourish a cultivator’s body a little. But Lin Mianmian had not yet drawn spiritual energy into her body. To avoid giving her body more nourishment than it could handle, the first thing Yuan Zhaoyang had to do was remove most of the nourishing substance inside the Red Essence Five-Scale Fish.
Since she could not borrow the earth fire of Qingxin Hall or Evolving Objects Hall, Yuan Zhaoyang could only use fire drawn out by her own spell.
A cluster of flame rose from Yuan Zhaoyang’s fingertip. It grew taller and thinner, until several fine threads of fire stretched out from the tip of the flame. Following the cuts Yuan Zhaoyang had made on the fish ahead of time, they drilled inside.
Yuan Zhaoyang closed her eyes and used divine sense to feel the path the fire threads took inside the fish. They pierced through pieces of hard fish meat and wrapped around thin, hard fish bones. As if refining an artifact, spiritual energy followed the fire threads and began refining the fish bones. This refining lasted nearly an hour. When the fire threads withdrew along their paths back into the flame, drops of clear, shining, jelly-like liquid dripped into a plate through the openings made by the fire threads. These were the fish bones that Yuan Zhaoyang had fully refined, with most of their nourishing substance burned away.
The two fish were refined together, but the liquid from the fish bones only covered the bottom of one plate. Yuan Zhaoyang poured the jelly-like liquid into a pot, added chopped Creeping River Vine and Underground Yellow, and began stewing. The fire she used was drawn out with spiritual energy, so she had to flick out a small fireball from time to time to keep it going. She had almost no free time. It was busier than refining artifacts normally.
The remaining fish bodies had lost their fish bones, but they were still hard to the touch, with no sign of softening. They were simply harder to process than the bones. Yuan Zhaoyang frowned and thought for a long time. In the end, she hesitantly chose the meat on both sides of the fish heads, which felt a little softer within all that hardness. She sliced off several thin pieces and put them into the soup pot.
Constantly flicking small fireballs was not much easier than using fire threads to refine fish bones. After another half hour of cooking, the bubbling soup pot began to release the smell of fish soup. Yuan Zhaoyang opened the pot lid, scattered in a handful of Luminous Shell Salt, stirred, and ladled out a small spoonful.
The originally clear jelly had melted into the soup. The soup was clear and looked like a spoonful of steaming hot water. Yuan Zhaoyang frowned and drank it in one mouthful. Only after a long while did her brow relax a little. But when she picked up one slice of fish meat and put it in her mouth, her brow quickly tightened again and could no longer loosen. Red Essence Five-Scale Fish was indeed a terrible ingredient. Yuan Zhaoyang swallowed the fish meat in great displeasure.
By the time Yuan Zhaoyang finished stewing the pot of fish soup, Lin Mianmian had wiped less than one-fifth of the fish scales on the ground.
A-Bai opened Yuan Zhaoyang’s sound-transmission paper sparrow. She held the chicken leg she was eating in her mouth and used oily little paws to send Yuan Zhaoyang a reply paper sparrow carrying the smell of roast chicken leg.
Not long after, Yuan Zhaoyang appeared by the river. With a complicated face, she looked at A-Bai lying in her soft nest eating chicken leg and Lin Mianmian wiping fish scales under the moonlight.
“This is how you kept her here?” Yuan Zhaoyang sent a voice transmission. Looking at the fish scales stacked neatly to the side, clean and dry, Yuan Zhaoyang truly felt that Lin Mianmian, who was still working seriously, looked terribly pitiful.
“What else? How was I supposed to keep her here for two hours? Pretend to slip and fall into the water for two hours? Or knock her unconscious and leave her on the ground for two hours?” A-Bai sent back unhappily. “Speaking of that, why did you need me to keep her here for two hours?”
“…In a while, take her back slowly. When you reach the courtyard, give this to her.” Yuan Zhaoyang left one final voice transmission and a cloth bundle, then quickly walked toward Lin Mianmian.
What was this…
The little white rabbit’s claws moved slightly, and the cloth bundle opened by itself, revealing a small jar.
Fish soup?
A-Bai leaned close to the mouth of the jar and smelled it. Tch, she had thought it was something special. Wait… this thing smelled like… no way.
The little white rabbit quickly opened the jar and stuck her head over to look. Then she soon lifted her head blankly, staring in shock at Yuan Zhaoyang, who was walking toward Lin Mianmian. Was Yuan Zhaoyang so idle she was about to grow fur?
“All right. Go back. Leave the rest to me.” Yuan Zhaoyang pulled Lin Mianmian away from the mountain of fish scales.
“Senior Sister Yuan…” Lin Mianmian, who had almost gone mad from wiping fish scales, was so moved her eyes filled with tears.
No one knew what Yuan Zhaoyang was thinking. As if possessed, she reached out and brushed a finger across Lin Mianmian’s brow and eyes, gently wiping away the tear that had not yet fallen.
“Uh… I am not crying. I did not cry.” Lin Mianmian quickly wiped her face twice and explained.
“…” Yuan Zhaoyang lowered her head and looked at her own fingers. She had clearly closed the fragrance on Lin Mianmian’s body. So why, in the moment she touched Lin Mianmian’s brow and eyes just now, had her hand felt strange, a little like tingling, but not quite like tingling?
Yuan Zhaoyang raising her hand to touch Lin Mianmian’s face with no expression made Lin Mianmian both awkward and shy. Seeing Yuan Zhaoyang fall silent now, Lin Mianmian could not stop herself from explaining again. “I really was not crying. I was just moved that Senior Sister Yuan came…”
“Mm…” Yuan Zhaoyang nodded and looked at Lin Mianmian with complicated eyes. “Go back.”
So with that strange look, did she understand or not? I really am not a little child like Wang Minger, who cries with a waah whenever she feels like it. I am an alien who crossed worlds and has seen a great deal! I am a grass demon who lived for a hundred years and is very strong!
Lin Mianmian looked back at Yuan Zhaoyang with an equally complicated gaze.
However, the one with the most complicated feelings might have been the little white rabbit who had seen the jar of Red Essence Five-Scale Fish soup. This strange ingredient was basically not edible, yet Yuan Zhaoyang had spent so much time stewing it into soup. Yuan Zhaoyang must be sick. And not lightly sick either…
A-Bai clutched her chest.
After the unwilling A-Bai took Lin Mianmian, who clearly wanted to rush home, and walked far away, Yuan Zhaoyang quickly collected all the scales on the ground. Drying? There was no need for that at all.
When Lin Mianmian returned home and saw no sign of the little calico in the courtyard, the first thing she did was rush into the room. Only after she saw the furry little cat on the bed did she relax.
“Tch… It is stepping on your pillow, and you still look happy. Are you all right?” A-Bai, who had followed Lin Mianmian into the room, wanted to jab at Yuan-calico the moment she saw her.
“You have never raised a cat. You do not understand.” Lin Mianmian quickly walked to the bed, scooped up the little calico, pinched each of its four little paw pads, and said with a smile, “Such cute little paws can step wherever they want.”
I have never raised a cat? The cat in your arms is one I raised, all right?
The little white rabbit felt that recently, when facing this person and cat, she might puff up from anger at any moment.
“Heh heh. Maybe it stepped in poop,” A-Bai said with a cold face, forcing down her anger.
Lin Mianmian, who had just kissed one of the little calico’s paws, stiffened instantly.
“Put down the fish soup. You can leave.” Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice transmission was doubly cold.
At the same time, the little calico looked deeply at Lin Mianmian, who was stiffly holding her little paw. Although Yuan Zhaoyang definitely had not stepped in poop, if Lin Mianmian dared to drop her paw in the next moment, hmph…
“It definitely stepped in poop. When it buried its poop,” A-Bai said with firm anger after being frozen by the cold-faced cat.
“…” At first listen, that really sounded reasonable. Lin Mianmian held the little cat paw and raised her head, successfully meeting the gaze of the kitten, who was standing on three legs and staring at her.
Why so blank? Why so furry? Why so small? Oh, why so cute!
A-Bai watched with her own eyes as Lin Mianmian suddenly gave a foolish smile and kissed each of the little calico’s paws one after another. She was simply dumbfounded.
“Heh heh…” The little calico, who had already been kissed into a flipped-over state by Lin Mianmian, did not forget to twist her face aside and send the little white rabbit a sincere voice transmission.
A-Bai, mocked straight in the face, almost jumped up and stomped Lin Mianmian to death for being so useless.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
The little white rabbit held the doorframe for a long while. When she raised her head again, her eyes were full of something hard to describe. She sent a voice transmission and asked, “So, you are a grown woman over a hundred years old, and a young girl scooped you into her arms and kissed your hands and feet. What is there to be happy about? Are you sick?”
The little calico, who had been using a paw to push against Lin Mianmian, turned to stone.
“Mianmian, your Senior Sister Yuan stewed Red Essence Five-Scale Fish soup for you. She stewed it for two hours. Drink all of it. Do not waste it. Otherwise, she will make you go outside and step in poop.” The little white rabbit tapped her golden bell and set the small cloth bundle on the table. After speaking quickly, she grinned at the petrified cat. Before Yuan Zhaoyang could react, A-Bai made a face and ran off at high speed.
So happy! So happy! Today, she was finally not fleeing in defeat!
The little white rabbit hopped out happily, her joy almost breaking through the sky. Her good mood turned into little ice rabbit statues made under the dance of her small paws. Beside the little house, in the courtyard, on the dirt road, the little ice rabbits made all kinds of funny faces toward Lin Mianmian’s house. One after another after another… the ground was full of little ice rabbits.
“Rice Ball?” Lin Mianmian shook the kitten in her hands, who had suddenly stopped moving.
“…” The little calico raised her head and looked at Lin Mianmian. Then she kicked out and jumped to the side.
Lin Mianmian, who had already kissed the cat many times, did not notice anything strange about the cat. She temporarily let little Rice Ball go, got up, walked to the table, and opened the small cloth bundle.
Red Essence Five-Scale Fish soup?
Lin Mianmian lifted the small jar, blew on the steaming fish soup, tilted her head back, and took a sip.