Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 6

That cow… had a cow’s head and a human body. Its yellow-cow face somehow looked honest and simple. Its earth-yellow robe suited it very well. It was only about half a head taller than Lin Mianmian. Its voice was low with a slight bounce to it. It was probably a… little cow? Demon?
Lin Mianmian had seen big scenes in the apocalypse. Although she had worked in the logistics department and did not need to leave the base every day to fight on the front line, she had still seen many captured mutated animals. There were things with cow heads, tiger bodies, leopard tails, and fighting power armed to the teeth. There were fish-headed bear-bodied creatures that ruled both water and land. In the setting of a cultivation world, a cow-headed human-bodied being that looked proper, spoke human language, and was polite should not have frightened Lin Mianmian this badly.
But perhaps Lin Mianmian had been grass for too long. Now, seeing such a big cow head come close, her legs truly went weak. Earlier, for no clear reason, she had turned into a person. If now, again for no clear reason, she turned back into grass… Lin Mianmian could practically picture her future.
“Are you here to enter an immortal sect?” Seeing Lin Mianmian not answer, the cow scratched its horn and asked again.
Whether or not she should try to enter an immortal sect was exactly the question Lin Mianmian had been struggling over earlier, while the crowd pushed her here. On one hand, she was afraid that as a grass demon, cultivators would not tolerate her. On the other hand, Lin Mianmian truly did not know where else she could go with only ten copper coins.
“Another one? Didn’t we already announce that immortal sect recruitment starts at noon today? If you come in now, the teleportation array on the cover has not opened yet.” A voice that suddenly appeared interrupted the stalemate between the two of them – or rather, the two demons.
Lin Mianmian tried hard to ignore the cow head so close to her and looked around. Not far away, white light faded, and a very tall, sturdy man with a broad back and thick waist, a full beard, brows dark as ink, and eyes like copper bells strode toward them as he spoke.
Good. At least it was not another cow. Lin Mianmian relaxed slightly. Maybe she could get out now. She still needed some time to think about what she should do next.
But the big man reached her in a few steps. Before Lin Mianmian could speak, he picked her up and tossed her into the white light he had come from. With a look of disgust, he formed a hand seal and struck it toward the white light. “What a bother. We still have to gather these rule-breakers and teleport them together. It is almost noon, and another one comes in.”
Lin Mianmian was thrown through the air. When she hit the ground, it did not hurt as much as she had expected. The man had likely used some skill.
“Hey, I am Niu Wanli from the Ten Thousand Demons Sect. Come play!” The cow-headed one seemed to like Lin Mianmian very much and waved.
Wait…
Before Lin Mianmian could crawl up, her vision blurred, and she arrived somewhere else.
It looked like a huge, empty warehouse. Many people were either sitting or standing inside. Lin Mianmian’s sudden appearance naturally drew a wave of gazes nearby, but that was all. There was no further curiosity.
Only a few young children nearby saw Lin Mianmian’s confused face and kindly pointed upward.
Lin Mianmian raised her head and saw a line of large words above.
“Central Teleportation Area. At noon, when immortal sect recruitment officially begins, teleportation will take place.”
The writing was strange. It was not the Chinese script Lin Mianmian had once known. Yet somehow… she could understand every word. She did not know whether this was a gift package that came with crossing into another time and space, or a grass spirit’s talent.
None of that was the main point for now. The main point was… was she really going to enter an immortal sect?
Earlier, Lin Mianmian’s worry had been that she did not know how cultivators treated demons. But from what Niu Wanli had said before the teleportation, there was at least a Ten Thousand Demons Sect, which sounded as if it were full of demons. If in this world, humans and demons could live peacefully together and cultivate together, then entering an immortal sect was truly the best path.
Besides, being betrayed by the base in the apocalypse had always been a painful thorn in Lin Mianmian’s heart. During the long years of her grassy life, she had thought about it many times. If her ability had been stronger then, if she had been better at fighting, perhaps when the base pushed her out as a test subject, she would have had the strength to resist and would not have ended up in such a state. Now that she knew this was a cultivation world, Lin Mianmian truly could not convince herself to live as an ordinary mortal. At the very least, she wanted more power. Power enough to protect herself.
Lin Mianmian stood quietly in one corner of the warehouse, thinking. She did not know how long passed before the white light of teleportation lit up again. This time, the entire warehouse was filled with white light. Lin Mianmian followed the source of the light and looked down at her feet. Silver-white patterns had lit up across the whole warehouse floor, and the white light came from there.
This was a teleportation array. The entire warehouse was a teleportation array.
In the apocalypse, all the bases had worked together to research something like this but had never succeeded. It had been a thing from stories.
A life-saving tool that survivors of the apocalypse had always hoped for was only an ordinary tool here. Once again, Lin Mianmian felt the power of this world, and a bit of longing rose in her heart.
In a moment, everyone in the warehouse was teleported out. They stood neatly in the center of a huge round plaza… on the left side.
And on the right side…
“Ah!”
“Wah!”
“Boohoo!”
“Mm… mm!”
Most of the people present were young children here to enter immortal sects and their direct relatives. When they were teleported out, they came face-to-face with those teleported out on the right.
On the left was a crowd of people. On the right… was a crowd of demons.
At a glance, it was like all the animals from a zoo had escaped. There were creatures as big as bears and elephants, and as small as mice and ants. All kinds of birds circled in the sky, and in several large vats, fish of many colors leaped up. If it were only that, the human crowd on the left might not have been frightened into children crying and adults trembling. The real problem was the demons among the beasts who had beast heads and human bodies, human heads and beast bodies, or human bodies with animal parts. They truly looked startling.
The adults on the left were afraid of disturbing the beast crowd. At almost the same time, they covered the mouths of the crying children. Yet they themselves shook like willow leaves in the wind, nearly swaying where they stood.
The beast crowd on the right was much quieter, though from time to time a few unhappy complaints burst out.
“Idiots.”
“And they want to cultivate like this? If they see a demonic beast, they will be scared to death on the spot.”
“Does this baby look scary? This baby is the number one beauty of my clan! Do not let me enter the same sect as them, or I will beat them every time I see them.”
“Humans are this stupid.”
“Stupid and weak humans.”
…
There was quite a distance between the humans and demons, so the people could not hear what the demons were saying. Lin Mianmian truly did not know whether she should thank her excellent hearing. Still, she looked toward the voice that called itself the number one beauty of its clan. Mm… glossy black fur, gentle but slightly spoiled little eyes like the brightest stars in the sky. It truly was a very pretty… black bear.
Looking over like this, Lin Mianmian discovered that in the demon crowd on the right, there were also many “people” standing there. They looked completely human. Yet those “people” also called themselves demons and complained about those stupid humans. So those “people” were actually demons like her, fully transformed into human shape? Lin Mianmian frowned. Then why had she not been teleported to the demon side?
Lin Mianmian felt as if she had grasped a very important point, but before she could think further, a voice that was not huge yet clearly rang through the entire plaza sounded beside her ear.
“Noon has arrived. From now until noon the day after tomorrow, you may freely choose an immortal sect to enter. If you fail the test at your first chosen sect, you will lose the right to choose freely and will be selected a second time by other immortal sects. If, by the deadline, no immortal sect accepts you, then… you will be given one tael of silver. May your journey home be smooth.”
As soon as the voice stopped, both humans and demons scattered quickly.
Lin Mianmian was a little at a loss. Based only on the bits and pieces she had heard in the Tian family, she still did not understand the situation very well. What the voice said sounded a little like filling out college entrance exam choices. The problem was, she knew nothing about those immortal sects.
Very soon, Lin Mianmian discovered that she was not the only one who knew nothing, and what she had worried about was not really a problem.
The human and demon crowds spread toward the edges of the plaza. Lin Mianmian casually followed one group to the plaza’s edge and saw…
Around the edge of the round plaza stood a complete circle of small houses in all kinds of shapes, with one every dozen steps or so. In front of each house was a large platform with several cultivators standing there. Beside most of the cultivators were things like display stands, above which words made of various objects floated.
After following the crowd closer and looking, Lin Mianmian realized that each house represented a sect here to recruit disciples. The words were simple introductions to the sect and some important sect rules. Naturally, the cultivators remained at the door to answer questions. Children who decided to enter that sect would be sent into the house to test their spiritual roots and aptitude. If they met the sect’s requirements, they would count as having successfully entered an immortal sect. When they came out, the sect’s name would float above their heads. If they failed to meet the sect’s requirements, the words “awaiting assignment” would float above them instead. Then roaming immortals on the plaza would take them away and send them to the area for a second selection by other sects.
It was both like filling out college choices and like a job fair. The strange, funny sense of familiarity eased much of Lin Mianmian’s unease.
Very few children hurriedly decided which sect to enter. Most people moved in one direction and looked at each sect one by one, as if they planned to read all the introductions before deciding.
This recruitment method was truly as people-friendly as possible. The immortal sects had even considered that not everyone could read. They added an audio function to the text, repeatedly reading aloud the written content. It really gave off the feel of a street fruit stall, very grounded. Fortunately, cultivators had many methods. Once one left the area in front of one house, one could no longer hear that house’s explanation. Otherwise, no matter how large the plaza was, it would have turned into chaos.
Lin Mianmian roughly estimated that based on the size of the plaza and the spacing of the houses, there should be at least fifty or sixty sects. That was not especially many. She could look through them one by one.
Here, Lin Mianmian’s strong interest in the cultivation world rose, and she planned to look carefully at each sect. Over there, Yuan Zhaoyang was almost going mad in her cat body.
She had clearly felt that tempting fragrance become so thick it was almost right before her eyes. Yet when she went out to look, the noodle stall had arrived, but the person had not.
It was so fragrant, so fragrant that she was nearly dizzy. How could the girl not have arrived?
Yuan Zhaoyang was certain the little girl’s aura had followed Ying Fu all the way here. But why… after so long, had she still not come?
Could it be…
Yuan Zhaoyang narrowed her eyes and looked at the little houses of many shapes on the plaza. Could it be that the person she had lured here had been dazzled by the messy flowers outside?
She was a little… angry.