Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 53

A-Bai still remembered that back then, when she followed that stiff little white paw and dug Yuan Zhaoyang out from under the cloth bundles, the strings of those bundles had all been tangled around Yuan Zhaoyang’s cat legs. Although Yuan Zhaoyang herself remembered nothing, A-Bai always felt that the things in those three little cloth bundles, the things that saved them, should have belonged to Yuan Zhaoyang.
The liquid in the bottle labeled “Drink it, and draw spiritual energy into the body” made them enter a state of spiritual energy pouring into their bodies with only one mouthful. Added to the fact that they had properly read the booklet about drawing spiritual energy into the body and the simple methods of Qi Refining the night before, the two demons passed the first threshold on the path of cultivation very smoothly and entered the first level of Qi Refining.
From ordinary demons to first-level Qi Refining demons, they could now rely on the spiritual energy circulating in their bodies to resist the cold of that extreme cold region. And that was not the only benefit. After entering Qi Refining, although they still could not fully abstain from food, they could at least go several days without eating.
At this point, they finally won themselves a better chance of survival.
Because short-term survival was no longer a problem, they stayed in that cave for two more days, hoping to try their luck and see whether A-Bai’s father, after failing to find A-Bai outside, would come back there to look.
But waiting was useless in the end.
Two days later, the two little demons randomly chose a direction and began traveling together.
With only eight short little legs between them, their speed was not fast. Along the way, they went around many cliffs and steep walls they could not climb, and many frozen rivers that led who knew where. The direction they had first chosen gradually disappeared. Their route became free, scattered, and without a goal. To fill their stomachs, when they were hungriest, they ate leaves from roadside shrubs, bark stripped from trees, and roots buried under the soil.
For quite a long time, life was so hard that only survival remained.
Fortunately, after Yuan Zhaoyang entered the first level of Qi Refining, she quickly learned how to gather spiritual energy and form small fireballs. Besides giving them more warmth, it finally meant they did not have to gnaw raw bark, leaves, and grass roots. Boiling them did not make them taste good, but at least they were much easier to swallow.
Another thing that comforted them was that the smoothness of drawing spiritual energy into their bodies seemed to lay a smooth foundation for their later cultivation. They traveled all day and had only a little time to cultivate at night, yet in less than two months, they entered the second level of Qi Refining almost one after the other. Yuan Zhaoyang’s fireballs became larger, and the ice flakes A-Bai condensed also made it much faster for them to get bark and grass roots.
After they had walked for more than four months, A-Bai slept one day and woke to find that the strange furball was gone. In its place sat a little girl in a set of clothes that looked somewhat familiar to a rabbit.
Perhaps because their cultivation kept improving, their sense of the severe cold became more detailed. Over the next month or so, they began relying on that subtle feeling and moved every day in the direction that felt slightly warmer. Then once, after spending seven or eight days walking along a narrow path between two mountain peaks, a path like an uphill slope, their view suddenly opened wide. At the same time, the chill on their bodies clearly lessened by a great deal.
After nearly half a year, Yuan Zhaoyang at the third level of Qi Refining and A-Bai at the second level finally walked out of that extreme cold region.
Later, they met a migrating group of Great Snow Mountain Burrowing Upright-Eared Rat demons. Only then did they learn from the Foundation Establishment rat demon leading the group that the place that had trapped them for almost half a year was Zhaoyang Valley, one of the coldest areas in Great Snow Mountain of the Northern Territory.
After talking with the upright-eared rats, they really did not know whether they should feel lucky or not. For lone cubs like them, who did not know the safe routes, if they had not been in the extremely cold Zhaoyang Valley, where there were almost no supplies and few humans or demons were willing to cross on foot, they might not have lived safely until now.
The upright-eared rat said that long, long ago, that place had not been the extreme cold land called Zhaoyang Valley. It had been the highest peak in the Northern Territory, Chaoyang Peak.
It was said that a thousand years ago, when a large group of Soul Transformation cultivators inexplicably ascended and caused turmoil in heaven and earth, one of those Soul Transformation mighty figures had been on Chaoyang Peak. No one knew what had gone wrong, but that towering peak, which had reached into the clouds and had a fairly suitable temperature, became the extreme cold land it was now. At the time, the area belonged to Dingqiong Temple in the Northern Territory. The temple felt that since the peak was gone, the name Chaoyang no longer fit. Only then was it changed to the current Zhaoyang Valley.
Later, the strange furball wearing the small metal disk with the character Yuan gave herself a name: Yuan Zhaoyang.
At first, A-Bai thought it was because the furball remembered nothing and had simply used the place name as her name, while also marking the hardship of that half year.
But as A-Bai grew year by year and experienced more things, she looked back at those years and thought of how Yuan Zhaoyang had specially embroidered black-orange cloud patterns on every set of clothes. Only then did A-Bai slowly begin to understand. Back then, when that furball used Yuan as her surname and Zhaoyang as her given name, perhaps more than anything, she had held a hope that she might one day find her family.
Thinking about it, Yuan Zhaoyang truly had not had an easy time back on Great Snow Mountain.
A kitten who remembered nothing had hovered on the edge of life and death. Before she even had time to properly think about her cat life, she muddled onto the path of cultivation just to survive. After that came bitter cold, hunger, and hard travel. From the very beginning of her memory, everything was long, difficult survival.
From the moment they met, even though Yuan Zhaoyang remembered nothing, between the two demons, she was always the one who could endure more hardship and withstand more exhaustion. On so many days, after trudging along through the day, A-Bai would finally find a place to stop and think about resting for a little while before getting up to search for food. Then that little rest would turn into sleep. When she woke again, it was often deep night. A warm fire, hot grass-root and bark soup. So many times, A-Bai swallowed it down in shame, thinking that next time, she definitely could not let Yuan Zhaoyang be the only furball doing all the work. But sometimes, being unable to endure truly meant being unable to endure. Keeping spiritual energy circulating to resist the cold without a break was already an overloaded burden for A-Bai, who was still a cub. Sometimes A-Bai thought that without Yuan Zhaoyang, even if she had entered Qi Refining back then, she probably would not have been able to walk out of Zhaoyang Valley.
In the eyes of cub A-Bai, that strange furball was stubborn and tough. She had clearly lost her memory, yet seemed to need no one’s care, oh, no rabbit’s care at all. She was simply a very independent cub.
That image sank deep into the heart of the little rabbit cub and remained until today. Over the past hundred years, Yuan Zhaoyang had indeed stayed as strong, independent, and resilient as she had been when they first met. On Cangming Mountain, from a very promising seedling to an eternal Foundation Establishment cultivator whom no one thought well of, Yuan Zhaoyang never gave up on herself. When there was no road on Cangming Mountain, she went down the mountain to find one. Just like when she walked out of the hardship of Zhaoyang Valley.
Perhaps because that first impression was too deep, and because Yuan Zhaoyang had maintained it too well all these years, A-Bai had never thought about whether Yuan Zhaoyang was truly so independent that she did not need anyone else’s care or help.
This time, Yuan Zhaoyang had turned into a kitten and stayed beside Lin Mianmian in order to break through to Core Formation. Every time A-Bai went to see them, she felt Yuan Zhaoyang cared about Lin Mianmian a little more than the last time. At first, A-Bai only felt that this cat had always valued feelings and loyalty, and that the difference in how she treated Lin Mianmian was only because she felt guilty for hiding her identity and drawing on Lin Mianmian’s fragrance. But the longer it went on, the more A-Bai felt it was not only because of that. She just could not say what else it was.
That was why A-Bai had several times been dazzled until her rabbit eyes went faint by that person and cat’s sticky sweetness, then provoked by Yuan Zhaoyang’s cold face into fleeing in embarrassment.
But this time, after wandering outside for several months and coming back to see all those strange things in Lin Mianmian’s courtyard and room, then having memories stirred up by the sweet water, A-Bai began to feel that perhaps… deep in Yuan Zhaoyang’s heart, she did want to be cared for so gently and properly. At least, perhaps she had once hoped for that.
In that extreme cold land, during deep nights when even circulating spiritual energy still left her somewhat cold, had she ever thought about having a soft little warm nest? When she was boiling soup made of strange plants and looking at the rabbit beside her who had fallen asleep from laziness again, had she ever hoped to eat food someone had carefully cooked just for her?
Lin Mianmian… this person did those things wholeheartedly, only for her, solely for her.
If Yuan Zhaoyang truly had once held those hopes, then even if everything now was based on a lie, she would probably find it very hard to see through it.
So as for Core Formation, should she even form that core or not?
On Hengshui Peak, A-Bai looked at the moon and sighed.
The memories of the past were too heavy. A-Bai shook her furry rabbit head. In this lonely night with only one rabbit, she should think of something happy instead.
She said she should think of something happy, but what was there to be happy about when one rabbit was home alone?
After thinking and thinking, it was only old matters.
But there was indeed one old matter that made a rabbit wildly happy every time she remembered it. Whenever A-Bai could not eat good food and felt unhappy, or ate too much good food and felt uncomfortable from being stuffed, she would take it out and think about it.
As soon as she thought of it, she would immediately become happy.
That was right. That matter was… back then, Yuan Zhaoyang had been a perfectly good kitten, yet she had hopped like a rabbit for almost four months. If she had not taken human form early later, she might have hopped all the way out of the valley and out of Great Snow Mountain. Just thinking about it made A-Bai unable to stop laughing.
Later, they passed through the territory of a human cultivation family on Great Snow Mountain. Because there was a barrier, the area, whose temperature was already slightly higher, became even warmer and more suitable for humans to live in. So there were also many small animals from the mortal world there.
It was there that Yuan Zhaoyang first saw how mortal-world kittens… walked.
That shock and disbelief from deep in Yuan Zhaoyang’s soul, that look as if her entire cat life had collapsed in an instant… A-Bai would never forget it in this lifetime.
It was simply too funny, all right? A kitten that should have walked with cat steps had rabbit-hopped for four months, all right?
Even though nearly a hundred years had passed, now that A-Bai was lying on Hengshui Peak and remembering it, she still could not help laughing so hard she rolled all over her nest.
Too stupid. How could there be such a stupid cat?
While A-Bai on Hengshui Peak sank into memory, praising her own cleverness back then while laughing until her belly hurt over the stupid kitten’s rabbit hops, Yuan Zhaoyang in the outer valley also remembered those old events because the sweet water for drawing spiritual energy into the body had come up.
So many years had passed, yet Yuan Zhaoyang still could not remember anything from before she met A-Bai.
Logically speaking, now that her cultivation had reached the point of being close to Core Formation, even if she had lost her memory, there should have been some sign that memories were beginning to return. But there was none.
Yuan Zhaoyang had once suspected that her memories might have been sealed, or that she had been cursed. But after using every method she could use, she still could not glimpse the slightest sign of a seal or a curse.
And so, for the time being, her entire cat life could only begin from opening her eyes in the cold and seeing that little white rabbit.
For a cat demon, starting in an extreme cold land was not a good beginning. The process was also very difficult. Cultivation had been like being forced onto a perch. Especially because after cultivating and cultivating, she had gotten stuck.
But she had no choice except to move forward. Because if she did not move forward, others were still moving forward. Most importantly, those with whom she had formed grudges, and those with whom she might soon form grudges, were all still moving forward.
Back when she left Cangming Mountain, she said she was going out to travel, broaden her state of mind, and seek an opportunity to form her core. In truth, at that time, Yuan Zhaoyang had already sensed that her long-stuck cultivation was abnormal. At first, she had offended a major demon power in the Northern Territory. Joining Cangming Mountain had partly been for protection. Yuan Zhaoyang had good aptitude, and Cangming Mountain had indeed protected her. But if she stopped at Foundation Establishment, then the Northern Territory would probably no longer be as safe for her as before.
Also…
Yuan Zhaoyang had always felt that when she first met A-Bai, although she remembered nothing from before, her normal thinking ability had still been there.
Because Yuan Zhaoyang lacked memory and knowledge back then, A-Bai had chattered all along the way, doing her best as a rabbit to tell Yuan everything she knew.
After only a few days, Yuan Zhaoyang could already recite the names of everyone in the little valley where A-Bai had lived, as well as those families’ best dishes. Mm, she even knew very clearly whose cabbage field was tasty and whose radishes were bitter.
A-Bai had said plenty of trivial things, let alone the trading trip with her father, which was naturally the main point of the story.
Yuan Zhaoyang and A-Bai were not very familiar at the time, but the more Yuan listened, the more she felt something was wrong.
Leaving aside everything else, take the first time he brought the little rabbit cub into the sky. How careless did he have to be to only notice he had not attached a talisman when the rabbit cub was nearly frozen to death?
And that cave. Normally, they had lived there for several nights while searching for fruit. Then after A-Bai went missing, if her father had returned to the cave, why did he not leave a few talismans? Knowing clearly that A-Bai had only two wind-repelling and cold-resisting talismans on her, Yuan Zhaoyang felt that if she were the rabbit father and went back to the cave but could not find A-Bai, she would at least leave something just in case. Fine, even if he left nothing else, he should at least leave a note, right?
On top of that, A-Bai had not avoided the topic at all. During all that chattering, she had not even left out the part about her birth.
Yuan Zhaoyang was unwilling to think badly of a rabbit… but… had A-Bai’s father really looked for her?
And also…
Yuan Zhaoyang did not dare think too deeply.
That time, they were lucky enough to escape Zhaoyang Valley with their lives. First, because their cultivation was still low, they could not use magic artifacts to fly for long periods. Fine, in truth, they simply had no magic artifacts, no spirit stones, and were very poor. Second, A-Bai only remembered that the little valley she lived in was called Silver Wind Valley. The Foundation Establishment upright-eared rat said there were far too many livable little valleys in Great Snow Mountain, and many valley names were chosen casually by the people living inside them. Outsiders might not even know that a livable valley existed there. Silver Wind Valley… such a weak-sounding name… he really had never heard of it.
And so A-Bai’s wish to go home became impossible in the short term.
It had to be said that Yuan Zhaoyang secretly let out a breath at the time. She held bad suspicions in her heart. The months they had spent together earlier had let her deeply understand that A-Bai was a simple rabbit cub. If things were truly as Yuan suspected, then if A-Bai went back, she would be a dish on someone’s plate. But if Yuan had to follow A-Bai back, then with her early Qi Refining cultivation at the time, she would probably only be another dish.
Later, they experienced many things along the way until they joined Cangming Mountain. When both demons reached mid Foundation Establishment, A-Bai brought up wanting to search for her home and go back to look.
Although Yuan Zhaoyang felt the two of them were very likely still two dishes, she could not immediately find a way to make A-Bai give up the idea.
Sometimes Yuan Zhaoyang had also wondered whether she was being too suspicious. But after cultivating all that way and seeing more of the world, she understood more clearly that one must never lack a heart of caution.
In the end, however, they did not go back.
A-Bai set a date to return home. Before that day arrived, they participated in a large secret realm as disciples of Cangming Mountain. Before entering the secret realm, they met A-Bai’s father.
The cold man had a flash in his eyes. It was instant shock… and… disappointment? Then he returned to coldness again. If Yuan Zhaoyang had not been watching him closely with suspicion from the very beginning, she probably would not have caught that tiny change in expression at all. After that, the man’s calm answers about the time A-Bai went missing made Yuan Zhaoyang’s heart sink even deeper.
Only the silly rabbit, carefully apologizing to that man, would believe those replies that sounded utterly without feeling.
And… at that time, A-Bai’s father was already at perfect Core Formation.
Fortunately, that time, Cangming Mountain had a Nascent Soul Perfected presiding over the group. Yuan Zhaoyang almost had to force herself to patiently listen until the two of them had nothing left to say and could only look at each other. Then, with an equally expressionless face, she pulled A-Bai away.
The conversation between those two rabbits was extremely empty. One obediently admitted fault. The other coldly said not to do it again.
At the very end, Yuan Zhaoyang finally heard one bad thing and one good thing. The bad thing was that Rabbit Father was about to condense a nascent soul and prepare to enter the Nascent Soul realm. The good thing was that he would go into seclusion for a while, and after he came out, he would look for A-Bai again.
Of course, Yuan Zhaoyang did not wait for Rabbit Father to come out of seclusion. She successfully continued pulling A-Bai along to travel, leaving the Northern Territory.
As for whether A-Bai had sensed anything wrong during that reunion with Rabbit Father, Yuan Zhaoyang never dared, and never wanted, to ask. All she could do was cultivate properly and pull the stupid rabbit out of the pot before she became a dish.
In truth, cultivation really… was not an interesting thing.
Only sometimes, there was already no possibility of turning back.
Thinking about it made her angry too. While she was worrying about the rabbit, the rabbit was thinking about little wontons.
Little what wontons? The next day was not one of the days when Zihui distributed supplies. How could Yuan Zhaoyang find time to cook little wontons?
Making wontons required chopping the meat filling, wrapping them, putting them into the pot, and also simmering a good broth. Yuan Zhaoyang felt there was no way she could disappear for that long without Lin Mianmian noticing.
Especially after the cat pouch appeared. Even smuggling Fried Dough in to poop required Yuan Zhaoyang to calculate the timing carefully and squeeze everything in tightly.
The night gradually deepened. After listening to the story of Harry Pawter opening the golden egg in the bathwater and hearing the mermaid’s song, Yuan Zhaoyang still could not calm down for a long time.
Because of the stupid rabbit, because of the little wontons from who knew where, and because Harry Pawter seemed close to winning the Goblet of Fire.
Once Harry Pawter won, the story would end.
The calico cat should also leave.
Yuan Calico turned her head and looked at the sleeping Lin Mianmian. Carefully and slowly, she pulled her tail out of Lin Mianmian’s palm.
When did she develop this bad habit… needing to sleep while holding a cat’s tail? Why didn’t she try sleeping while holding Fried Dough’s tail and see whether it gave her a new face?
Having regained her freedom, Yuan Calico skillfully shook out her fur, jumped off the bed, and walked to the wall. Following the little steps on the wall, she slowly walked among the protruding wooden planks.
This piece was a little narrow. Yuan Zhaoyang stepped on one of them, jumped, and landed on another piece diagonally above it. She tilted her head and thought for a moment, feeling that this distance was better than the previous one. The previous one had been a little short. But these little wooden boards really had been sanded so smooth. Yuan Zhaoyang rubbed her cat paws against the wood and unconsciously thought of Lin Mianmian carefully sanding each wooden board again and again back then.
Hmph. Fool.
What? A cat walking cat steps and playing on the wall in the middle of the night?
No, no, no. She was only testing whether these wooden boards were reasonable.
Yuan Zhaoyang found herself a very good reason and moved freely across the wooden boards. When she neared the window, she casually sent out a voice-transmission paper sparrow.
On the bed, Lin Mianmian listened to the sound of the little cat lightly running and jumping around the room. Slowly, the corners of her mouth curved.
During the day, when she urged it to go play for a while, it never went. Every time, it waited until midnight, when it was alone, and secretly played under cover of night for half the night.
This little thing was still so shy.
My little Rice Ball really was the cutest cat in the world.