Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 5

Although Ying Fu felt that moving the noodle stall to the city-center grounds was a sudden whim from Yuan Zhaoyang, he still respected this senior sister very much. She often appeared in the sect’s great lecture hall and answered questions for lower-level disciples without judging their background.
Before they left the mountain gate, the elders of the sect had also reminded them that many sects would be coming to Yingxian City to recruit disciples. Everyone from the Five Elements Sect should keep to their duties, avoid causing trouble, and not disturb the lives of the mortals in the city.
Mortal gold and silver had long lost all value in a cultivator’s eyes. Even a mountain of gold and silver would probably be worth less to them than a single ten-year-old spiritual herb. Among the Five Elements Sect’s group, only A-Bai, who had planned all along to buy and eat her way through the mortal world during the trip, would keep such a bothersome pile of gold and silver in her storage bag.
Yuan Zhaoyang had only casually picked a male cultivator among the accompanying disciples who looked slightly plump and honest. She thought a friendly face would more easily gain the trust of the noodle stall’s customers. All right, mainly the trust of that little girl. But she had not expected that although Ying Fu looked simple and honest, he was actually very careful.
More than a hundred years ago, Linjiang City had only been a small city in the Southern Union. It had no special local products and relied only on its position near the water to barely support its people. Then immortals descended and set the matter of recruiting disciples once every ten years. Linjiang City officially changed its name to Yingxian City and quickly developed into a medium-sized city.
Now, even on normal days, Yingxian City welcomed and sent off travelers constantly, with merchants arriving by water and by land. But every ten years, whenever the immortals descended, the city’s liveliness multiplied several times.
The Qiao family’s sauce-braised meat noodles were sold on a small street in the west of Yingxian City. On ordinary days, they served neighborhood business. A bowl of braised meat noodles cost fifteen coins. With meat broth as the base, noodles rolled from fine white flour, and a thick slice of sauce-braised meat, the cost alone was seven or eight coins. Add rent, and they were really only earning hard-work money. The Qiao family’s sauce-braised meat truly tasted good, and some customers had urged them to open a shop on a busier main street. The Qiao family wanted to do that too. The problem was that the Qiao family had too many children.
The recipe for the sauce-braised meat had been worked out by the Qiao family’s father, who had once worked in a restaurant in a large city. After returning to Yingxian City, he opened this small noodle stall. The Qiao family had many sons. The Qiao family’s young man was the youngest, with five older brothers above him. Every time Father Qiao saved up some money and wanted to open a shop on the main street, one of his sons would need to marry. Betrothal gifts cost money. Buying houses because there was not enough room to live also cost money. Back and forth like this, decades passed, and the noodle stall was still on this little street.
After finally sending off four sons, only the youngest Qiao son remained. Father Qiao could no longer work much, so these past few years the youngest Qiao son had been managing the noodle shop. Father Qiao only hoped his youngest son would not have so many sons of his own. That way, perhaps one day the Qiao noodle shop could open on the main street.
But Father Qiao never imagined that before his family’s noodle stall opened on the main street, it would open in the city center of Yingxian City, in a place that was forbidden to ordinary people even when the immortals were not present.
Ying Fu was slightly plump. He wore a sky-blue robe and tied his hair with a jade crown. Naturally, he did not look as immortal-like and drifting as Yuan Zhaoyang, but dressed like this, anyone could tell he was an immortal. So the moment Ying Fu left the city center, many people gathered to watch him.
The Qiao family’s young man ladled soup, cooked noodles, and sliced meat, sending out bowl after bowl in a smooth flow while secretly calculating today’s income. It was not yet noon, but he had already taken in twice as much money as usual. By the time he closed for the night, he should have enough saved to buy the silver-and-jade butterfly hairpin he had set his eye on long ago. Thinking of this, his hands moved even faster. Still, he could not help sighing that it would be good if the immortals came every day. With more people in the city, even business on the small street was better, and he could save enough to marry Xiaoyu sooner.
Just as the Qiao family’s young man thought this, an immortal stood before his stall.
Because mortals revered immortals, Ying Fu carried a natural empty space around him. Now that he had arrived in front of the Qiao noodle stall, the crowd automatically parted. Only then did the Qiao family’s young man, who had been focused on making noodles, realize something was wrong. His hand, which had just hooked up a piece of meat from the sauce pot, trembled. A large piece of sauce-braised meat slipped and fell to the ground.
When Ying Fu came over, Lin Mianmian had already copied the people around her and stepped aside. It was rare for an immortal to walk outside, and he seemed as if he wanted to eat noodles. The onlookers were excited. Although they gave way, they did not leave. Lin Mianmian did not leave either. Of course she was curious about immortals, but more than that, she could not bear to leave the meat in the pot.
Now, seeing the Qiao family’s young man drop a large piece of meat to the ground, Lin Mianmian felt as if it were not meat that had fallen, but a knife landing on her heart.
What a waste! Lin Mianmian bit her lip and covered her chest.
In the apocalypse, never mind food falling on the ground. Even if someone stepped on it a few times, as long as it had not touched zombie virus, it could be picked up and eaten. One more bite of food might mean living two more days. Lin Mianmian did not mind that the meat had fallen on the ground at all. But this was not the apocalypse. Whether the shopkeeper still wanted that meat or not, it would not be her turn either way. Thinking about it like this, Lin Mianmian no longer knew why she was hurting over it.
While Lin Mianmian was grieving over a piece of meat, Ying Fu spoke.
“I am renting your noodle stall for today. Bring your things and come with me.”
Immortals wanted to eat noodles too? The Qiao family was going to become rich! The crowd burst into noise, and when they looked at the Qiao noodle stall again, their eyes were different.
Ying Fu was only at mid Foundation Establishment, but at this moment he saw every burning gaze in the crowd: envy, jealousy, and even some dark feelings that could not be hidden.
Whether among immortals or mortals, owning a treasure was indeed a crime.
Ying Fu hid the thought in his eyes and asked the Qiao family’s young man again, “The stall will be moved temporarily to the city center. Whether anyone comes to eat or not, the daily rent is ten taels of silver. If people eat, I will pay you double the noodle price. Are you coming?”
The Qiao family’s young man felt dizzy, as if some great chance had fallen from the heavens and struck him. Of course he nodded.
Ying Fu looked around. The envious gazes remained, but the jealousy and darkness had vanished. He nodded in satisfaction and said to the people nearby, “At noon today, the Five Elements Sect will begin recruiting disciples. The noodle stall will be set up at the entrance to the Five Elements Sect’s grounds. Anyone willing to enter the Five Elements Sect, together with their relatives, may eat at this stall until full.”
After speaking, he waved his sleeve. A strong wind rolled through. The entire Qiao noodle stall, along with its stove, pots, owner, and even a layer of earth beneath it, was swept into the wind.
“Do not be afraid. When this is over, I will send everything back exactly as it was,” Ying Fu said to comfort the Qiao family’s young man in the wind. After thinking a moment, before leaving he added, “Is there anything I missed?”
The wind looked fierce, but the Qiao noodle stall wrapped inside it was steady. The fire in the stove did not go out, and the sauce-braised meat in the pot still bubbled. Only the Qiao family’s young man’s legs were a little weak. He barely managed to stand and looked back toward the house behind the stall. “There are still some ingredients in the back yard…”
Before he finished speaking, an older man, already half-gray, pushed out a cart of things while panting. “They are all here.”
Ying Fu moved his fingers, and the cart of things was also drawn into the wind.
“Work hard. The glory of our Qiao family depends on you!” the old man shouted joyfully, waving at the pale-faced young man in the wind.
The Qiao family’s young man: “…” Was this really his own father?
Yingxian City was named for welcoming immortals, but whenever immortals came, they always landed directly in the forbidden city center. There were also restrictions in the city center. No one could enter except children of the proper age and their direct relatives. Because of that, not many people in Yingxian City had seen immortals. As for an immortal method like Ying Fu’s, it was something they had never seen or even heard of.
If earlier, everyone had merely been awed by Ying Fu’s identity as an immortal, then now, seeing a gust of wind carry a whole noodle stall away gave the surrounding people a deeper understanding of the difference between immortals and mortals.
Everyone was shocked. Lin Mianmian was too.
In the apocalypse, there had also been ability users with mutated wind spiritual roots. Wind-type abilities had great destructive power among ability users. Low-level users could condense wind blades and wind needles to strike an enemy’s weak points. High-level users could summon strong winds, sweep enemies away, and control them from several meters off.
Lin Mianmian had seen wind-type ability users fight zombies and even other ability users. But no matter the situation, wind-type abilities were used to defeat enemies. The stronger the wind, the greater the killing power, and the higher the chance of victory. Yet now, this slightly plump cultivator had summoned a strong wind that did not harm people or objects. It only wrapped them gently and carried them forward. Lin Mianmian felt that even a level-four or level-five wind ability user from the apocalypse might not be able to do this.
This truly was a wondrous and powerful world.
Even more impressive was what happened as Ying Fu carried the Qiao stall forward. The people who had gathered to watch the immortal art could not bear to miss a wonder they might never see again in their lives. Not only did they not disperse, they followed Ying Fu’s steps.
Lin Mianmian did not know what thought drove her. When the crowd swept her along, she did not resist. But once she followed, she discovered something interesting.
When mortals stepped onto the road Ying Fu had walked, they felt as if a light breeze supported their ankles and pushed their bodies. Walking became much easier, almost like riding clouds and mist. Even Lin Mianmian, who had experienced the apocalypse and becoming grass, could not help marveling inside.
After a short distance, more and more people followed Ying Fu. The words Ying Fu had spoken before the Qiao noodle stall, about the Five Elements Sect giving out noodles, spread through the crowd at an extremely fast speed. More people joined, but the breeze did not weaken. Somehow, words gradually began to circulate among the crowd: the immortal was kind, could not bear to see mortals tire themselves, and had used immortal arts to create a wind path so everyone could follow.
Ying Fu’s ears and eyes were sharp, so of course he did not miss the increasing praise behind him. The breeze those mortals said was pushing them was actually just wind leaking out because he had not mastered the Wind-Riding Art well enough to fully control it. He had not expected it to become such a beautiful misunderstanding. But that was fine. It happened to match Ying Fu’s goal of using this chance to spread the Five Elements Sect’s reputation.
More and more people followed. Lin Mianmian was carried among them. Perhaps she had unknowingly moved farther from the Qiao noodle stall, or perhaps the wind had blocked some of the scent, because the smell of sauce-braised meat was no longer as strong as before. Lin Mianmian began to regret following.
She did not know whether she should count as a person, grass, or a grass demon. Although these immortals were probably cultivators, who knew? In a cultivator’s eyes, perhaps she was also a demon that needed to be killed. As Lin Mianmian thought this, she wondered why she had not considered it sooner. Had she been hungry for a hundred years until her whole head was just a stomach? The thought poured over her like cold water and quickly cooled her down from her fever over sauce-braised meat.
But by the time Lin Mianmian was afraid and regretful, it was too late.
An immortal plus a floating noodle stall was simply a killer combination for attracting followers. Lin Mianmian had people in front, behind, to the left, and to the right. There was no way for her to retreat. It felt very much like being carried along by a crowd at a top scenic area during the National Day holiday in her peaceful previous life. Add the breeze pushing her forward, and it felt as if she were a duck being driven onto a rack, about to be roasted.
Lin Mianmian tried hard to move backward and resist the tide of people. But before she could make even a ripple, the space before her suddenly emptied.
Stiffly, she took two more steps forward under the breeze around her body, then stopped. Lin Mianmian could hardly believe what she saw.
She turned back rigidly. Several steps behind her, it was as if a transparent wall had appeared. The dense crowd, so dark and endless that she could not see the end, slid off to both sides like oil when they touched that wall.
Why… was she the only one who had entered?
Lin Mianmian quickly walked back to the front of the crowd and tried to squeeze back in. But she simply could not. Seeing her do this, several women squeezed at the front waved at her with kind faces. Although those women soon slid away along the transparent wall, Lin Mianmian still heard their well-meaning encouragement.
“Do your best, child!”
Heh. Do her best at what?
Lin Mianmian turned back. The slightly plump immortal had already vanished. The light breeze at her feet was still pointing out a path for her. The key point was… did she dare walk it?
On the other side of the wall was a sea of people surging in and sliding away. Inside the wall was a vast, strange place that seemed to stretch without end.
Above the buildings of many different shapes, high in the air, some had flames drifting, some had ice condensed, and some had beads of water rolling around. They seemed to form words.
All right, none of that was the main point.
The main point was this:
With her back pressed to the transparent glass-like wall, cold sweat dripped from Lin Mianmian’s forehead.
“Where are you going?” An enlarged cow head moved closer to Lin Mianmian.
Where was she going? Surely not into your belly!
As a blade of grass, she suddenly felt as if she had walked to the bottom of the food chain. How was she supposed to fix this? Urgent.