Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 69

“Cough…”
A soft cough was coughed by Yuan Zhaoyang with enough twists and turns to make the fur on the little white rabbit’s back almost stand up.
A-Bai raised her head. She saw Yuan Zhaoyang standing on a jade flake, hovering in midair. After that clear cough, Yuan Zhaoyang made no more sound. She only looked silently this way, her eyes full of layers of indescribable meaning.
“Wh-what…” After one rabbit and one cat had spent a hundred years together, A-Bai had never seen Yuan Zhaoyang be this awkward. For a moment, A-Bai felt as if she were sitting on needles. Her whole body was uncomfortable. She clearly had done nothing wrong, yet when she opened her mouth, she sounded as if she were forcing herself to act strong.
Lin Mianmian was half a beat slower, but very soon, she also turned her head in the direction the little white rabbit was looking. Once Lin Mianmian moved, the soft rabbit paw that had been loosely pressed over her mouth slid to her face.
From Yuan Zhaoyang’s angle, the person and rabbit in front of her had gone from a friendly paw pressing a mouth to a warm paw pressing a face.
She was inexplicably a little angry. This strange annoyance actually broke through the embarrassment she had felt after turning back and discovering that she seemed somewhat unnecessary.
Looking at Lin Mianmian’s innocent and questioning face, there was a sentence Yuan Zhaoyang truly wanted to ask.
Now that you have the little bunny, do you still remember your favorite little calico?
Of course, Yuan Zhaoyang could not ask this. She did not even have the position to think it. So that inexplicable annoyance was destined to be held in.
Yes… It was this gaze… This gaze of looking at an unfaithful person…
So what had Lin Mianmian done this time?
Lin Mianmian bravely met Yuan Zhaoyang’s half-sorrowful gaze for less than one breath before she could not bear it and moved her eyes away.
“I suddenly remembered there is something I forgot to give you.” Yuan Zhaoyang naturally noticed Lin Mianmian avoiding her gaze, and her heart tightened even more. But making things difficult for Lin Mianmian had never been her intention. She was more annoyed at herself for losing composure.
“What thing?” The one who picked up the conversation was always A-Bai, whose mouth could never stay idle. “I mean, if you want to give something, then give it. You came back like a ghost and did not speak properly. What was that cough for? Who were you trying to scare? At first hearing it, I thought I had done something wrong…”
Lin Mianmian silently added one in her heart.
These two…
Yuan Zhaoyang tightened her palm and tried hard to calm down as she landed on the ground. But seeing that A-Bai’s rabbit paw was still pressed against Lin Mianmian’s face, she truly could not quite bear it.
“A-Bai, you…”
“What?” The little white rabbit had a face that said, If you only speak halfway, I really will not understand.
“…” Yuan Zhaoyang looked once more at Lin Mianmian, who seemed not at all uncomfortable with the little bunny paw on her face, then looked back at the little rabbit. “A-Bai, the fur on your feet should be trimmed.”
A-Bai was lost.
What did the thing you wanted to give have to do with my foot fur? Also, why would a rabbit demon need to trim foot fur? A-Bai completely failed to keep up with the turn in Yuan Zhaoyang’s words. Although cats did have rather jumpy thoughts, this jump was far too distant…
“Mm.” Lin Mianmian caught A-Bai’s little paw from her face, held it before her eyes, looked carefully, and nodded in agreement. “The fur around the foot is a little long. If it is not trimmed, it is easy to get…”
“Get what?” A-Bai cut off Lin Mianmian in time and glared fiercely.
Even if a tiny little bunny pretended to be fierce, what she could show was limited. But Lin Mianmian did remember that this was a Core Formation great rabbit demon in front of her, not an ordinary little rabbit. Whether she had the cycle of grain and waste was another matter.
“Nothing, nothing. It is fine if you do not trim it.” Lin Mianmian put down the soft little rabbit paw in her hand.
At least you know what’s good for you.
A-Bai turned her head to look at Yuan Zhaoyang. Yuan Zhaoyang’s face was normal as she began taking things from her storage bag, as if she had not seen the little white rabbit’s accusing gaze at all.
Sure enough, this fellow had done it on purpose! Foot fur and getting… something stuck! She had deliberately made Lin Mianmian think of that! How could this cat be so bored!
A-Bai, who had been tricked, kept feeling that something was wrong. This was not the first time that feeling had appeared.
“Earlier, when you received the storage bag issued by the sect, I taught you to put the other things you received inside. You should still remember how to use a storage bag, right?” Yuan Zhaoyang asked Lin Mianmian while taking things out.
Lin Mianmian naturally nodded.
“These are things A-Bai put with me in Yingxian City to keep for you.” Yuan Zhaoyang took out a handful of black, pointed spike-like objects and a clump of earthy yellow fur.
They were the demon fur Xiong Tongzhang and Niu Wanli had given her in Yingxian City…
“Many thanks, Senior Sister Yuan.” Lin Mianmian accepted them respectfully.
Yuan Zhaoyang: “…”
Clearly, after their time together in the forest earlier, the distance between them had already narrowed a lot. How had this girl suddenly become so distant and polite again in less than two breaths after Yuan Zhaoyang left and returned?
Yuan Zhaoyang, who was a little unhappy, completely failed to think that her unconcealed sorrow had left Lin Mianmian unable to understand what was going on. Without realizing it, Lin Mianmian had again taken the closeness between them and pulled it farther apart.
Speaking of it, Lin Mianmian could not be blamed for withdrawing. From Lin Mianmian’s point of view, she had not spent much time with Yuan Zhaoyang at all, but she had received many favors from her.
Their time in the forest had been too harmonious, making her almost blur the distance between them. But when Yuan Zhaoyang showed that sorrow, it instead made Lin Mianmian feel again that the other person was mysterious, just like when they first met in Yingxian City.
She kept feeling that there were some stories related to her, but stories she did not know. Out of a person’s instinct to seek safety, Lin Mianmian steadily positioned herself as a disciple working hard to repay kindness.
Again like this… Lowering her brows and obeying…
Looking at Lin Mianmian suddenly becoming like this, Yuan Zhaoyang felt an unreasonable burst of irritation in her heart. She had originally prepared to give a gift properly, to celebrate Lin Mianmian’s success in drawing spiritual energy into her body. Now, she had no choice but to end it hastily…
“This is for you.” Yuan Zhaoyang felt a little angry, and also felt she was being somewhat unreasonable. She herself was tangled in contradictions and did not want to say more. “A-Bai will teach you how to use it.”
A long, thin black hair was stuffed into Lin Mianmian’s hand by Yuan Zhaoyang. Before Lin Mianmian could ask more, Yuan Zhaoyang… flew away again.
Only, compared with last time, when she fled with a slightly red face as if embarrassed, this time Yuan Zhaoyang’s back seemed to hold a few more traces of loneliness.
Ugh… Lin Mianmian clearly had not done anything, but she somehow felt a little guilty…
When Yuan Zhaoyang said she was leaving, she left. Her movements were so clean and swift she looked like a professional fugitive.
The courtyard stayed silent for a long time.
After a long while, Lin Mianmian weakly spoke. “A-Bai…”
The little white rabbit raised a paw with a serious face and brought it close to her three-petal mouth. “Shh…”
Lin Mianmian: “…”
The quiet courtyard was unfamiliar, spacious, and faintly cool… The only familiar little rabbit lifted her head high and stared at the sky, as if she had entered some strange state.
Lin Mianmian pinched the long, thin black hair in her hand. The more she looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.
“All right. She probably will not come back.” A-Bai lowered her head, turned her somewhat stiff neck, and waved a paw at Lin Mianmian. “Come, let me see.”
Lin Mianmian handed over the black hair.
“This…” A-Bai hooked the end of the black hair with her little claw, looked closely, and smacked her lips. “Tsk, tsk… It is actually this.”
“What is this?” Lin Mianmian, who had already observed it for a while, asked hesitantly. “It looks… like a strand of hair?”
“Very smart!” A-Bai clapped her paws. “Right. This is a strand of hair. Yours.”
“Mine?” Lin Mianmian froze. She smoothed a hand over the hair draped behind her, then compared carefully. Well. Whether in thickness or softness, it really did look like her own hair!
“When you received the sect storage bag earlier, you imprinted divine sense on the storage bag. You still remember that, right?” A-Bai released her claw, and the black hair fell back into Lin Mianmian’s hand.
Lin Mianmian nodded.
A-Bai rubbed her face with her paws. “Then try it. On this strand of hair.”
“…” Lin Mianmian felt the hair in her hand become a little hot. “You mean, this strand of hair… is a storage bag?”
“Yes. Impressive, right?” At some point, the little bunny rubbing her face had already lain down, with a soft nest under her.
“I have already taken many things from you. This…” Before Lin Mianmian could finish, the little rabbit cut her off.
“There is no use refusing this one. Can’t you tell? This is a magic treasure tailor-made for you. Only you can use it.” The little white rabbit lying in the soft nest waved a paw. “Hurry and try. This is good stuff.”
Lin Mianmian: “…”
Spiritual energy turned from her dantian and flowed through her fingertip into the strand of hair that was said to be a storage bag… At the same time, she circulated divine sense and attached it to the spiritual energy, imprinting her own divine sense mark onto the storage bag.
These steps were very simple. Lin Mianmian finished them quickly.
Only, she had not expected that at the moment the divine sense mark was completed, the strand of hair she had been carefully holding in her hand would suddenly vanish.
“A-Bai…” Lin Mianmian called the little bunny by instinct.
A-Bai, who was taking a roast chicken from her own storage bag, raised her head. “What? Oh, oh. Feel for it. It should already be on you.”
“…” Lin Mianmian somewhat missed Senior Sister Yuan, who wished she could break down every step and explain it to her twice.
Although A-Bai was not good at teaching people, what she said was not wrong. Once Lin Mianmian steadied her mind slightly, she sensed where that strand of hair had gone.
Only… this feeling of one storage bag mixed among a pile of real hair was truly special.
“A-Bai, these…” Lin Mianmian held out a pile of bottles and jars from the new storage bag, her face full of shock.
The little bunny, who had just torn off one roast chicken leg, raised her head to look. Her chewing of the chicken paused only slightly, then she continued chewing meat and sighed. “Yuan Zhaoyang, that fellow, really is…”
Was it Lin Mianmian’s imagination…
She kept feeling that the little rabbit’s gaze toward her had suddenly changed a little.
“Really is what…”
Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice transmission suddenly exploded in the little bunny’s heart. It startled the completely unprepared little bunny so badly that she swallowed the meat she had not finished chewing in one gulp and nearly choked to death…
“Where are you? Did you not leave?” The little white rabbit pounded her chest hard, looking like a rabbit imitating a gorilla.
Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice transmission did not sound again, as if she had never come.
But A-Bai knew very clearly. That cat, who had come back again for some unknown reason, was right in this courtyard! Wearing an invisibility talisman!
Too many spirit stones, sick, needs treatment!
“Really is what?” This time, the one who asked aloud was Lin Mianmian.
The little white rabbit looked all around, accepted her fate, and produced a small piece of ice to wipe her oily paws. “A storage bag is something that, when your strength is not enough, can be yours or can be someone else’s. Of course, when you are inside the sect, it should be yours. But after leaving the sect, it is hard to say whose it will be.”
“The design of storage bags means that if someone wants to seize a storage bag, they must first kill the storage bag’s owner before they can smoothly erase the divine sense mark and take the things inside. But if the other person directly demands that you erase your divine sense and give the storage bag to them, then when your skills are inferior, of course, staying alive is most important. In short, accidents can happen at any time, and chances to live are always left for those who are prepared.”
“So this storage bag is that chance to live…” Lin Mianmian said, unconsciously touching her hair.
“It counts as one kind of chance. After all, once they reach a certain realm, most people will not have only one storage bag and no hidden cards. Never mind storage bags. Even creating a small secret realm is a normal thing.” A-Bai looked at Lin Mianmian’s smooth, silk-like hair and continued, “But right now, you are still in the Qi Refining stage. Having this disguised storage bag is enough.”
“This storage bag is a magic treasure Yuan Zhaoyang forged using your original hair as the main body. Aside from storage, it also cannot be seen as a storage bag by anyone below Core Formation…”
“Nascent Soul. Anyone below Nascent Soul cannot see it.” Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice transmission sounded in A-Bai’s heart at just the right time.
“Oh, it should be that no one below Nascent Soul can see it. Even if they use divine sense, they will only think it is an ordinary strand of your hair…” A-Bai corrected herself, but could not help scratching her belly with a paw.
So A-Bai herself was still using fur that could not be seen through by anyone below Core Formation, while Lin Mianmian was already using something even higher grade? So who exactly was your most beloved little companion! Bad cat!
“The uses of those pills are written in that jade slip,” Yuan Zhaoyang continued transmitting.
“So you are a person now, do you still remember that? Why are you still using me as a voice-transmission bucket? Hey!” The little bunny looked around and transmitted back.
Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice transmission did not immediately reply.
A-Bai took a deep breath and continued explaining to Lin Mianmian. “That jade slip. Yes, the one on the left side of that pile of bottles and jars. Use your divine sense to probe inside and look. It has the usage instructions for these pills. Do not be polite with your Senior Sister Yuan. Her main practices are artifact refining and pill refining. If she does not refine for three days, her hands itch…”
“Because the voice-transmission bucket has meat to eat…” Yuan Zhaoyang’s late reply arrived.
“But do not think this new storage bag was easy to refine just because your Senior Sister Yuan likes artifact refining and pill refining. Something at the magic treasure level has high requirements for materials. But to make the disguise work, she used your hair, which means the average level of the materials was pulled down. She had to use even more high-grade things to make up for it, and the refining technique required was much higher too. It is all your Senior Sister Yuan’s care for you…”
Hearing that there was meat to eat, A-Bai turned the words beautifully.
Lin Mianmian silently touched the place in her hair where the magic treasure storage bag was. That strand of hair was light, just like a real strand of hair on her body. But the thought inside it was heavy, making her feel that the distance she had pulled open earlier really made her a bit awful.
A-Bai, that fellow…
Yuan Zhaoyang, who had no time to stop the little white rabbit, stood in one corner of the courtyard with an invisibility talisman on. She only felt that her ears were about to burn.
Luckily… no one could see.
After that, for the sake of meat, A-Bai worked hard and praised Yuan Zhaoyang a few more times, until Yuan Zhaoyang, whose fingertips had already turned pink from embarrassment, stopped her by voice transmission.
Lin Mianmian, however, because she felt a little guilty, sounded somewhat more dull when joining the conversation.
This dullness, in Yuan Zhaoyang’s eyes, felt even harder to bear.
Especially when the topic somehow turned back to the little calico again…
Yuan Zhaoyang wanted to appear and say something, but felt it would be sudden. And Lin Mianmian’s earlier sudden distance and politeness made Yuan Zhaoyang feel uncomfortable, so she hesitated even more.
And so, the little bunny who loved meat stayed over.
An unfamiliar environment and a familiar bunny clearly improved Lin Mianmian’s mood a lot as she crawled into bed.
Yuan Zhaoyang stood in the corner and watched Lin Mianmian move the soft rabbit nest onto the bed, placing it in the spot that had once belonged to Yuan Zhaoyang. Yuan Zhaoyang regretted it so much her insides almost turned green. Why had she told A-Bai to stay and keep Lin Mianmian company? The Yuan Zhaoyang from half an incense stick earlier… had a hole in her head, right?
But when she saw Lin Mianmian hug a familiar little blanket before crawling under the covers, Yuan Zhaoyang’s blocked heart suddenly softened again… faintly sour, but no longer because she was jealous of that foolish rabbit.
“A-Bai, have you heard the story of Harry Potter Cat and the Half-Blood Prince?” In the darkness, Lin Mianmian’s voice was so light it sounded a little weak.
Sure enough! Harry Potter Cat and the Order of the Phoenix had not been the last one!
Yuan Zhaoyang rubbed her eyes and began listening carefully to the new story…
The night gradually deepened. It was clearly an interesting story, but the storyteller’s voice carried faint sadness.
Yuan Zhaoyang knew where that sadness came from. She even felt it herself.
And so A-Bai, who was immersed in the magical story, received harassment by all kinds of voice transmissions.
“Hey, pat her.”
“Lighter! Are you patting her, or trying to beat her to death?”
“Why are you patting randomly! Pat her shoulder, lightly.”
“Yes, that is how I used to pat her. What problem do you have… Do you still want meat?”
“Good. Then your tail can curl around her wrist a little. She likes that.”
A-Bai, who had been harassed by one voice transmission after another until she could not properly listen to the story, finally exploded when she heard the last one.
In the darkness, the little white rabbit stood up, looked around, then pointed one paw at her own round little backside and angrily transmitted back, “Use this kind of tail to curl around her wrist and show me!”
Yuan Zhaoyang: “…”