Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 72

Looking at Yuan Zhaoyang before her, whose face had not yet changed but whose ear tips were clearly red, Lin Mianmian secretly blamed herself. Facing a senior’s friendly statement about affinity, she really should have expressed thanks and goodwill in a more solemn and sincere way.
Just as Lin Mianmian pressed her lips together and wondered whether she should speak again to patch things up, Yuan Zhaoyang broke the gradually growing awkwardness between them.
“Today, I will take you to look at the Five Elements Sect’s Great Lecture Hall. Do you want to rest a little more, or shall we leave now?”
The previous topic did not seem to have ended properly. But whether it was Yuan Zhaoyang, who spoke first to change the subject, or Lin Mianmian, who hurriedly said they could leave immediately, neither of them seemed to keep caring about that point.
The house Lin Mianmian lived in now was the kind of residence with land that Yuan Zhaoyang had introduced while they chatted in the forest earlier. When they arrived the night before, the sky had already been dark. Now, the light was just right. The two walked out of the courtyard, and Yuan Zhaoyang pointed at the sparse fences in the distance, telling Lin Mianmian the range reached by this house’s barrier and the land assigned for her use. It was about five or six mu.
Along the way, Lin Mianmian paid attention to the other people’s houses they passed. The land paired with each house looked about the same size. It seemed to be a standard arrangement.
Before drawing spiritual energy into her body, she had lived in the outermost part of the outer valley. The houses there had not been far apart, giving it a bit of the feeling of a mortal-world village.
Here, however, large fields separated one house from another. It did not look like a village. It was more like there were sheds added in the fields to watch over them.
Lin Mianmian still did not quite understand whether planting in the cultivation world also had to follow the rules of the four seasons. But at this moment, when she looked out, most of the fields she could see had things planted in them. From the roadside, however, it was not very easy to tell what was being grown.
Lin Mianmian looked at the scenery of other people’s homes along the road and thought of her own several mu of land. A few more traces of expectation rose in her heart.
If one planted, one could harvest. If one harvested, one had food. She wondered whether she could grow Rotten-Wood Flower Vegetable and Double-Eared Yunying Beans here. If she could recreate the Rotten-Wood Flower Vegetable Steamed Double-Eared Yunying Beans that had once amazed her so much, that would be wonderful.
At this moment, Lin Mianmian was calculating things in her heart and did not notice whether it was a little strange that the two of them had walked all this way without half a sentence.
Yuan Zhaoyang, however, clearly did not mind the quiet right now either.
After leaving that courtyard and leaving that topic behind, the wind blew, and the whole cat felt much more comfortable. The strange heat faded from the tips of her ears and fell away from her heart… then left behind a few traces of small joy.
Wonderful. The self in human form was also liked.
There was not much conversation, but both of them were in very good moods along the way.
For the convenience of disciples who still could not use flying magic artifacts, the Five Elements Sect had many teleportation arrays set up inside the sect. After passing about a dozen houses, the two used an in-sect teleportation array and arrived at the Great Lecture Hall.
“This is…” Lin Mianmian turned her head and looked around. “The Great Lecture Hall… is on a mountain?”
Earlier, when she had been in the outermost part of the outer valley, mist had surrounded the forest, making it impossible to see more inside. After that, whether it was Clear Heart Hall and All Affairs Hall, which she had visited the day before, or the houses now, they had all been on flat ground.
Looking farther out, there were indeed many peaks rising, but they were also hidden between clouds and mist, only faintly visible.
It was not like now. The teleportation array beneath her feet was right at the base of a mountain peak. Looking up, the grass and trees were lush, and the rich green rose so high she could not see the top.
Not far ahead, a bluestone path wound and spiraled upward, disappearing into the forest. At the beginning of the path, a stone stele that was neither new nor old was carved with the three words “Great Lecture Hall.”
“This entire mountain peak is the Great Lecture Hall.” Yuan Zhaoyang looked at Lin Mianmian’s somewhat surprised appearance and smiled in comfort. “Do not worry. You will not have to climb the mountain every time to attend class. Walk one round with me, and you will understand.”
It sounded a little impressive…
As the two spoke, they walked toward the stone stele. Behind them, the teleportation array brought over several disciples in twos and threes.
Yuan Zhaoyang glanced back, then pulled Lin Mianmian and walked a few steps faster. She said quietly, “Let us walk faster.”
“What is it?” Lin Mianmian followed and sped up while glancing back. Her voice also unconsciously lowered and carried a bit of tension.
Yuan Zhaoyang’s hand was a little warm. Lin Mianmian only felt her wrist heat up, and her heart also warmed a little.
The Five Elements Sect did not require disciples to always wear the disciple uniforms they were issued. With only a hurried glance, Lin Mianmian could not tell what cultivation level the people behind them had.
Were they here to trouble Yuan Zhaoyang?
Lin Mianmian circulated the thin spiritual energy in her dantian, then sensed the less than one percent of ability power in her empty internal core that she had replenished by eating and drinking all kinds of things yesterday…
Sure enough, she could only be a burden.
“What are you thinking? Why did you suddenly move your spiritual energy?” Yuan Zhaoyang was still holding Lin Mianmian’s wrist and had not let go, so she clearly noticed Lin Mianmian circulating spiritual energy.
Lin Mianmian, as a burden, had nothing to say. She gathered all her strength and walked quickly up the mountain.
Yuan Zhaoyang felt something was not quite right. She stopped and pulled Lin Mianmian to a halt. “What is wrong?”
“Let us walk faster.” Lin Mianmian was too embarrassed to say that she had sensed her pitifully poor inner reserves. She looked back again and saw that the people behind them had also started climbing, drawing closer and closer.
“Wait.” Yuan Zhaoyang followed Lin Mianmian’s gaze and swept a glance behind them, then looked back at Lin Mianmian’s anxious and worried face. Her heart suddenly moved. “You cannot be thinking that I am afraid those people behind us will cause trouble, so I told you to walk faster, right?”
“…” Seeing Yuan Zhaoyang’s raised brow and expression that was both angry and amused, Lin Mianmian could only shake her head even if she had wanted to nod earlier.
Not convincing at all.
“What you thought is not wrong. I am indeed afraid someone behind us will cause trouble.” After Yuan Zhaoyang understood where the problem was, she quickened her pace again. As she walked, she explained, “But not in the way you imagined. Among the people behind us, there is a cultivator surnamed Liu. Like me, he is a guest elder temporarily staying in the Five Elements Sect and helping teach disciples.”
“Only, when we first arrived, I refuted a few of his boasts about his cultivation experience. From then on, whenever he sees me, he always asks all kinds of questions, some related to cultivation and some unrelated but obscure. If it were truly a discussion and exchange between fellow seekers, that would be fine. But after a few times, it was not hard to see that those were questions he had deliberately dug up from who knew where to make things difficult for me. He even asks them in a strange, biting tone.”
“Normally, it would be fine. Talking for a while only wastes a little time, and I treat it as keeping peace. But today, I do not have the free time to drag things out with him.”
“So that is how it is.” Lin Mianmian let out a breath.
“So when you circulated spiritual energy just now, were you thinking of helping me?” Yuan Zhaoyang could guess the answer to this question. But for some reason, if she did not ask it, it scratched at her heart.
Lin Mianmian smiled bitterly. “Senior Sister Yuan, please do not make fun of me. You know what my aptitude and situation are… If something really happened, I would only hold you back.”
“I was not laughing at you.” Yuan Zhaoyang’s face was serious. “So just now, were you thinking of helping the other side?”
“…” Lin Mianmian was truly impressed. “Of course I wanted to help you.”
“Hmph, hmph.” Yuan Zhaoyang looked satisfied. “That is more like it. As for aptitude, do not care too much. Cultivation depends on aptitude, but it also depends on resources and opportunity. Maybe in the future, you will still have the chance to become sixty-four percent.”
Lin Mianmian reacted for a moment before realizing that when Yuan Zhaoyang said sixty-four percent, she meant Lin Mianmian’s spiritual root, which had suddenly gone from a line to thirty-two percent.
Did she think spiritual roots were cabbage, able to keep growing and growing?
This comfort… was a little special too.
Before Lin Mianmian could say more, the bluestone path embedded in the forest beneath their feet suddenly reached its end. Without the cover of the lush trees, the view before them opened wide.
Earlier, when looking up from the base of the mountain, it had truly been impossible to tell. But only a few minutes of walking from the mountain foot brought them to such a large clearing hidden in the forest.
On the clearing, which was about several thousand square meters, dozens of smaller-looking teleportation arrays were arranged neatly, crisscrossing in rows.
“Here we are. First, we will go receive a course list. We finally missed him.” Yuan Zhaoyang pointed at a small wooden house beside the cluster of teleportation arrays.
There was even a course list…
Lin Mianmian had thought that the small wooden house, which looked from outside to be only about forty square meters and rather old, would contain hidden space inside. But after entering, she discovered it was truly the same inside and out…
Inside the empty wooden house, the only furniture was a wooden chest placed in the center. Yuan Zhaoyang released Lin Mianmian’s wrist and went forward on her own to rummage through the chest.
Lin Mianmian turned her wrist. It had cooled now, but for some reason, it also felt not quite warm enough.
“Where is your disciple plate?” Yuan Zhaoyang did not make Lin Mianmian wait long. She soon straightened and held out her hand.
Lin Mianmian somewhat clumsily took out her disciple plate from her storage bag. Speaking of it, a few years after the apocalypse began, people had also developed objects with storage functions. They were mostly accessories, activated with ability power. Lin Mianmian had used them before.
Only, using ability power and using spiritual energy were still somewhat different, so for now, she was not very skilled yet.
Yuan Zhaoyang was the one who had asked for the disciple plate. But after Lin Mianmian took it out, Yuan Zhaoyang did not immediately accept it.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Among the Five Elements Sect Great Lecture Hall classes, some basic classes are required. For example, meridian expansion, spiritual energy tempering, cultivation history, simple analysis of pills, talismans, arrays, and artifacts, and so on. These are all compulsory.”
“Although many guest elders or Core Formation True Persons in the sect will open these classes when they have time, and you can also look at the time and your preferences to decide whose class to attend, the final assessment is handled by the cultivator who installs your course list. At the same time, before the assessment, you can also apply for one day of private guidance from that cultivator.”
Yuan Zhaoyang tossed the jade slip in her hand, which was only the size of a finger joint. “Generally, we suggest that new disciples first listen to several cultivators’ classes before deciding which cultivator…”
This did not feel at all like… you forgot to say it earlier…
Lin Mianmian glanced at the jade slip being tossed up and down in Yuan Zhaoyang’s hand. Before Yuan Zhaoyang finished speaking, Lin Mianmian handed over her disciple plate with complicated feelings.
Sure enough, Yuan Zhaoyang accepted the disciple plate with a face full of approval, as if saying, You are very sensible.
Yuan Zhaoyang only formed a hand seal, and the little jade slip merged into the disciple plate as if it had always been there.
“Uh…” Lin Mianmian looked at the disciple plate and suddenly remembered something. “A-Bai told me before… Senior Sister Yuan, aren’t you going to form your core? Then my assessment…”
Yuan Zhaoyang was lost.
She had only been thinking that placing Lin Mianmian on her own side would make it more convenient to look after her… She had truly forgotten for a moment about forming her core.
“It is fine. Core Formation is a few months if fast, and a year if slow. It will not delay your assessment.” Yuan Zhaoyang had originally wanted to finish teaching Lin Mianmian the basic classes before entering seclusion. Thinking about it, after Lin Mianmian absorbed, digested, and practiced them, when Yuan Zhaoyang came out of seclusion, it would be just right for the assessment.
If it truly did not work, course lists could actually be transferred to someone else…
Of course, she did not want to say that now.
Hmph…