Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 73

Inside this old wooden house, aside from a chest that seemed to hold many small jade course-list slips, there was nothing special. Lin Mianmian, who had thought she could broaden her horizons again, felt a little disappointed. But this feeling quickly scattered cleanly once Yuan Zhaoyang began demonstrating how to use the course list.
The disciple plate that had merged with the little jade slip did not seem to have changed on the outside. But when Lin Mianmian followed Yuan Zhaoyang’s instructions and sent spiritual energy through a certain area of the disciple plate, before her eyes… no, it should be said that her divine sense “saw” the contents of the course list.
First was a “book” full of words, paired with pronunciation. It was used to teach young disciples to read.
Although it was for learning characters, aside from daily-use words, most of the recorded words and phrases were related to cultivation. With the notes added, if one read it carefully, then while learning characters, one could also gain more understanding of the path of cultivation.
Thinking about it, that made sense. A cultivator’s time was precious. For this kind of simple teaching, they probably would not waste a Core Formation cultivator’s time. Using this “book” that could speak was much more convenient.
Lin Mianmian’s divine sense looked further. Next was a huge class schedule.
The recent course arrangements for the Great Lecture Hall could be seen at a glance. As her divine sense moved, she could not only look closely at each course’s name, summary, time, location, teaching cultivator, and whether it was required, but also the suitable cultivation level and aptitude for the course. At the end, there were even thoughtful recommendations for other courses related to that course.
This course schedule was very simple and convenient, clear at a glance.
While Lin Mianmian sighed over it, she also felt a strange familiarity. Setting aside the fact that it had to be viewed with divine sense, this course schedule was very similar to the class schedules of normal schools before she came to this other world…
But thinking about it, the Great Lecture Hall itself was somewhat similar to a school, so Lin Mianmian did not keep thinking deeper.
After looking at the course list a few more times, Lin Mianmian roughly estimated what classes she could attend in the near future, then withdrew her divine sense. Although looking at the course list did not require much divine sense, Lin Mianmian had only just drawn spiritual energy into her body. After a long time, it was still somewhat tiring.
“How is it? Can you understand it?” Yuan Zhaoyang asked with concern the moment Lin Mianmian opened her eyes.
Lin Mianmian naturally nodded.
Unexpectedly, after receiving the answer, Yuan Zhaoyang pressed her lips together and looked a little unhappy.
Lin Mianmian was not stupid. Listening to what Yuan Zhaoyang had said before attaching the course list, it was clear Yuan Zhaoyang had the intention to guide her. Now, seeing Yuan Zhaoyang’s expression turn a little disappointed, Lin Mianmian could not help suspecting that Yuan Zhaoyang could not have originally planned to teach her even reading and writing, right…
“Before I came to the Five Elements Sect, I already knew how to read. This way, I can keep up with the courses more quickly and also come sooner for Senior Sister Yuan’s guidance and assessment.” Lin Mianmian felt she had to give the eager Senior Sister Yuan some comfort.
“Hmph.”
It would have been better if Lin Mianmian had not spoken. After she finished explaining, Yuan Zhaoyang instead let out a light hmph. Even her body, which had been facing Lin Mianmian, half turned away.
What happened?
Where was the promised gentle, friendly, understanding senior sister who taught all without discrimination?
Lin Mianmian was not very used to this kind of turning her face… or rather, turning her hmph at the slightest disagreement.
“Senior… Sister Yuan…” Lin Mianmian called hesitantly.
“…” Yuan Zhaoyang pressed the tip of her shoe against the ground. In the end, she did not keep leaving Lin Mianmian there. “After understanding the course list, did you not feel anything was wrong?”
Calm down. They had just become a bit friendlier. She could not scare Lin Mianmian farther away with another small temper.
The course list? What problem was there with the course list? If the course list had a problem, why were you hmphing at me?
Lin Mianmian had no time to analyze the deeper issue. She still put her thoughts back on the course list she had just seen.
So… the problem was…
Lin Mianmian tightened her sleeve and hesitantly said, “This is my first time seeing this course list today, so for the moment, I cannot tell what is wrong.”
Seeing the pretty senior sister before her press her lips together, as if another hmph was about to gather strength and launch, Lin Mianmian quickly sped up.
“But on that course list, it seemed there are no courses taught by Senior Sister Yuan in the near future. I do not know whether it is because Senior Sister Yuan is about to enter seclusion… so…”
The pressed lips gradually loosened. They returned from pale pink to a rosy color. The hardened brows and eyes also softened.
When Yuan Zhaoyang turned back around, Lin Mianmian understood. All right. So it was this. She had not expected Senior Sister Yuan to be someone who loved her post so much and cared this much about her schedule rate!
“Want to attend my… class?” Yuan Zhaoyang pulled out a small purse from who knew where and slowly looked at Lin Mianmian while tossing it.
Heh… Senior Sister, why did you pause so much while speaking…
Looking at Yuan Zhaoyang’s half-smiling eyes, Lin Mianmian understood a little. Sure enough, all that friendliness and gentleness from before had only been the surface before they became familiar! In truth, Senior Sister was… a proud, awkward teaching maniac!
Lin Mianmian had the feeling that if she said she did not want to, the purse would smash into her face in the next second…
“Senior Sister Yuan, are you not about to enter… seclusion…” Lin Mianmian spoke with pauses and suddenly felt a fear of hating school.
“Mm?” Yuan Zhaoyang raised her brows.
“I want to!” Lin Mianmian’s face was serious.
“Mm.” Yuan Zhaoyang nodded with satisfaction, then turned her hand and patted a pile of jade slips out of her storage bag. “These are some textbooks you will need and some of my cultivation experiences. Read them slowly.”
Wonderful. It felt like the first day of senior year.
Lin Mianmian accepted the jade slips and worked hard to ignore how her arms had bent under the weight in an instant.
In the past, Lin Mianmian had also heard Zihui mention that among the wandering cultivator teachers in the Great Lecture Hall, Yuan Zhaoyang was the most devoted and gave disciples the greatest benefit. Looking at it now, Lin Mianmian could more or less imagine Yuan Zhaoyang tirelessly teaching on the platform.
Only… Lin Mianmian looked at the pile of jade slips in her arms. For some reason, she had a faint feeling that she might be the one Yuan Zhaoyang was most devoted to.
Was it really… only affinity?
After their delay, when they came out of the wooden house, there was already no trace of the cultivators who had been following behind them earlier. Lin Mianmian let out a breath. Yuan Zhaoyang, however, did not react much, as if she had expected it.
After looking at the course list, Lin Mianmian already knew what the dozens of crisscrossing small teleportation arrays in the square outside were for.
Teleportation arrays in other parts of the sect could arrive directly at the base of Great Lecture Hall Mountain. After climbing the steps, the closest place to the mountain foot was this square. From here, people split off, and each small teleportation array sent disciples going to different courses to different places on the mountain.
Yuan Zhaoyang took Lin Mianmian through one small teleportation array after another, introducing the general uses of these different classrooms. In passing, she also spoke about the courses and situations the wandering cultivator teachers specialized in.
This Great Lecture Hall Mountain was truly rather interesting.
Some teleportation arrays led to large houses with normal desks and furnishings, carrying a bit of the flavor of an ancient private school. Some led outdoors, with vine trellises as frames and tree stumps as desks, which had a rather charming feel. Others did not even show traces of people studying. Some were forests, some were grassy fields, and some were patches of water. Yuan Zhaoyang said places like these were mostly used to teach spell practice, and there were many defensive arrays in the ground and trees around them.
On the mountain, there were also farmland, lakes, and even many caves containing mineral deposits in the belly of Great Lecture Hall Mountain, all used to teach, guide, and answer questions for different spiritual roots.
Aside from all these different classrooms, the mountain top also had a ring with multiple layers of protection, allowing these low-level disciples to spar regularly while their safety was guaranteed.
Lin Mianmian followed Yuan Zhaoyang and visited almost every classroom. Some classrooms were in session, so they did not stay long. Very soon, only several teleportation arrays sealed by huge stones remained unvisited.
“These are generally used for your first trial, so I will not take you through them. That way, when the time comes, you will still have some freshness.” Yuan Zhaoyang casually circled those sealed teleportation arrays and winked at Lin Mianmian. “Inside, there are only some spirit beasts with very weak attack power. They are just for you to practice. When the time comes, bring a few defensive talismans in. No matter what you meet, you will not need to be afraid.”
Trial? Fighting monsters?
Lin Mianmian’s gaze had not yet moved away from the huge stones carved into strange beasts when Yuan Zhaoyang took out a stack of talismans and handed them over.
“Senior Sister Yuan…” Lin Mianmian was flattered and startled. Almost by reflex, she shook her head and stepped back several steps with her hands behind her back.
Without merit, one should not accept reward. How many things had she already taken from Yuan Zhaoyang? This was not affinity. This was practically being kept…
Lin Mianmian was knocked back by the sudden complaint in her own heart.
Senior Sister Yuan’s face was like the sky in June…
One moment, it was clear for ten thousand li. The next second, it turned cloudy, then overcast, then light rain, then showers, then medium rain…
Before Yuan Zhaoyang could turn into heavy rain, Lin Mianmian obediently accepted the stack of talismans and sincerely thanked her.
Medium rain turned clear… in an instant.
Lin Mianmian quietly sighed in her heart. It was not that Yuan Zhaoyang’s expression became very angry or frightening. It was truly that Yuan Zhaoyang’s look of going from happy to unbearably wronged in an instant was too grinding.
It was like she had thousands and tens of thousands of words to say, but could not speak a single one. Wronged into sorrow, sorrow into melancholy, melancholy into heart-tugging worry, and worry into knots…
If you have something to say, then say it!
This was the cultivation world. Shouldn’t everyone be racing against time to cultivate and fighting for every bit of resources… Had Lin Mianmian taken the wrong transmigration script? Where had all this unprovoked kindness come from?
Yet she just could not refuse. As soon as she saw Senior Sister Yuan’s gaze, the kind that looked so hurt from being let down, Lin Mianmian felt she was terribly bad.
But again and again, one thing after another, piles after piles… She truly had no way to repay this.
Next time, she absolutely could not do this again. Lin Mianmian secretly made up her mind.
“What is it? What are you thinking?” Yuan Zhaoyang took out two teleportation talismans and one jade slip and placed them on the pile of talismans in Lin Mianmian’s hands. “The talismans have explanations. Read the jade slip yourself.”
Lin Mianmian: “…”
Yuan Zhaoyang felt something was not right. “What is wrong?”
“Nothing…” Lin Mianmian shrank back.
“Mm?” Yuan Zhaoyang narrowed her eyes.
“Uh… too many…” Lin Mianmian’s sincere words slammed on the brakes after Yuan Zhaoyang pressed her lips tightly together. “Thank you, Senior Sister Yuan…”
“No need to thank me. Do not say thank you in the future.” Yuan Zhaoyang adjusted the hair by her temple. “Listening to it is tiring.”
Lin Mianmian looked at the slightly red tips of Yuan Zhaoyang’s ears, then at her now-cleared and rather good mood. She could not help curving the corners of her mouth and murmuring, “Really like…”
No matter how low the words were, how could they escape Yuan Zhaoyang’s ears?
“Really like what?” Yuan Zhaoyang had a face of seeking knowledge.
“…” Lin Mianmian thought for a moment. There was nothing that could not be said. “Senior Sister Yuan sometimes really seems like a cat. One moment happy, the next moment angry, then suddenly happy again.”
So you are saying I have little tempers! I was originally a cat demon, all right!
Yuan Zhaoyang put on a stern face for a moment, but very soon, her expression returned to normal. She even softened her voice a little and asked, “Like a cat? Like your calico cat?”
A bit of guilty conscience that could not be fully pressed down…
Lin Mianmian froze. When she compared them earlier, she had not thought so specifically. Thinking about it now, it seemed… they really were quite alike?