Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 8

Yuan Zhaoyang frowned. Not only did she not let A-Bai remove the barrier, she added two more layers to it.
A-Bai sniffed, but could no longer smell the meat fragrance outside. When she turned to look at Yuan Zhaoyang, her rabbit face was shocked. “Are you going to imprison me and not even let me smell it?”
Yuan Zhaoyang looked at the rabbit that kicked its legs and collapsed on the ground as if dying from heartbreak. She was helpless. What was wrong with this rabbit, who could not stay serious for more than three seconds?
“A-Bai, let me ask you. After arriving in Yingxian City, have you smelled any unusual fragrance?” Yuan Zhaoyang crouched down, made a tree branch appear, and poked the “rabbit corpse.”
“There are lots. Fried flatbread smells especially good. Adding an egg smells even better. But none of it compares to the sauce-braised meat noodles Ying Fu brought back. That noodle shop smells pretty good. My bundle of money was not wasted.” The white rabbit flipped over, and the branch was pinned under her fat paw. “I knew it. Why did you suddenly become kind enough to bring back such a fragrant noodle stall? You did it on purpose to tempt me, didn’t you? Too wicked!”
“…You are thinking too much.” Yuan Zhaoyang skillfully put away the branch. “I am not asking about food fragrance. I mean a very, very special fragrance. Smelling it makes a person’s heart restless, as if even the blood warms up. Even now, after I added a layer of restriction to block smells, I can still smell that scent pulling at my mind.”
“I say…” At some point, the round rabbit had put some distance between herself and Yuan Zhaoyang.
Yuan Zhaoyang looked at A-Bai. Merely describing how she felt had already made her gaze a little hazy.
A-Bai shrank into a corner of the barrier. Her little paws, hidden beneath the fur on her belly, quickly undid the barrier. After swallowing, she spoke her true thoughts the instant the barrier opened.
“I say… Zhaoyang, you cannot be in heat, right? Let me say this first. I am a female rabbit! A female cat and a female rabbit have no future together!”
As soon as A-Bai finished speaking, she opened the barrier.
“A-Bai!” Yuan Zhaoyang was not in heat. Her face was almost turning green. She did not ask A-Bai to be serious for four seconds, but could she at least not be this unserious?
“Hehe… I was joking…” A-Bai quickly hopped to the boundary between the Five Elements Sect and the neighboring Ten Thousand Demons Sect.
Ying Fu had no idea what had happened. He had thought that after using the life-saving talisman his master gave him, Senior Sister Yuan would certainly scold him. In the end, A-Bai suddenly sprang out, gave him an identical talisman, and set up a barrier right in front of him, separating him from Senior Sister Yuan. However… judging from Senior Sister Yuan’s face, which looked ten thousand times worse when the barrier was removed, A-Bai must have done something a hundred times more frightening than what he had done.
A little scary…
Ying Fu slowly moved farther away.
“I was joking, really…” A-Bai wanted to run, but as soon as she left the Five Elements Sect’s grounds, the meat fragrance disappeared. She immediately began to miss the noodle stall. It smelled wonderful, and she had not eaten even one bite.
“Heh.” Yuan Zhaoyang gave a cold laugh. Her expression was awful, and she did not accept A-Bai’s act of standing on her hind paws, putting her front paws together, and selling pity and cuteness.
A-Bai lay down and slowly moved the back half of her body into the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s barrier, leaving only her head inside the Five Elements Sect barrier to smell the meat. So torn. Should she risk her life to eat a piece of meat before leaving? Ah, she always forgot that cats were creatures who held grudges. Maybe she should retreat first. After thinking for a little while, A-Bai slowly backed toward the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s side.
“A-Bai,” Yuan Zhaoyang suddenly said.
Huh? Why was her voice so soft? A-Bai raised her head. Yuan Zhaoyang, whose face had been green and angry a moment ago, now wore joy she could not hide.
“…” A-Bai had known Yuan Zhaoyang for almost a hundred years and would never believe she had calmed down so easily. There had to be a trick.
Faced with A-Bai’s searching silence, Yuan Zhaoyang did not mind. She only looked at A-Bai, formed a hand seal, and moved her lips a few times.
Damn! If this rabbit had not recognized that as a Thousand-Mile Voice Transmission seal, she would have thought Yuan Zhaoyang was about to capture a demon.
They were so close, and there was a soundproof barrier protecting the Five Elements Sect’s grounds. Why use Thousand-Mile Voice Transmission? Did she have so much spiritual energy she could not spend it all?
Before A-Bai finished complaining, she heard Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice sent directly into her heart through the secret method.
“A-Bai, there is a little girl at the Ten Thousand Demons Sect. Gray coarse clothes, dark blue cloth shoes, loose hair, snow-white and delicate. She is standing right in front of their sect introduction picture. Go attract her to the Five Elements Sect, and I will not hold what you said just now against you. Otherwise… do not even think about bringing a single bite of mortal food back to the Five Elements Sect.”
Good. This was very Yuan Zhaoyang. This threat, this rabbit baby… accepted it.
A-Bai turned back. Following Yuan Zhaoyang’s detailed description, she easily saw the girl.
At that moment, Lin Mianmian was lost in the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s introduction picture and could not pull herself away.
How could it be so cute?
On the picture were adorable little squirrels, little yellow dogs, little snow ferrets, little white bears, and all kinds of small animal cubs. Each was only half a palm big. Some crouched, some lay down, some chased each other, and some curled up together. They all looked alive.
If one lightly tapped any of them, it would open its mouth in a soft, milky voice and introduce its own species. It was truly too cute.
Before the apocalypse, Lin Mianmian had also loved fluffy things. Now, she simply could not move. So cute, one after another, as if living on that picture. Just watching the little white bear roll around made Lin Mianmian’s whole heart soften. Nearby, a little boy about six or seven years old seemed to like that little white bear most too. He kept poking it.
After the little white bear introduced its species several times, it very adorably hugged the little boy’s finger and asked with a sweet face, “Do you like me? Then do you want to come to our sect?”
Yes, yes, yes! It could even become three-dimensional and come out. Could it be truly alive? It could not be any cuter.
Ten Thousand Demons Sect, was it? It sounded pretty good. Where had she heard that name before? All right, not important. The scale in Lin Mianmian’s heart tilted sharply.
Just as Lin Mianmian was calculating whether entering the Ten Thousand Demons Sect meant she could see this picture every day and play with the cubs on it, her sleeve was suddenly tugged.
Lin Mianmian turned her head, and her face instantly went pale. It was not only Lin Mianmian. Several children and relatives nearby who had been drawn in by the picture were also startled. The Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s lively recruitment area emptied in an instant, leaving only Lin Mianmian, whose sleeve had been caught.
“What a coincidence…” Lin Mianmian finally remembered why the name Ten Thousand Demons Sect had sounded familiar. She tried hard to breathe deeply. It was fine. She was in human form now. Do not be afraid.
“Hehe.” Niu Wanli scratched his horn in embarrassment. “I am responsible for recruiting people here. I stepped away for a while. Did you come to find me and play?”
Not at all. As a cultivator, are you not a little too naive? Lin Mianmian wore an awkward expression and tried to pull her sleeve from the cow-headed one’s hand.
Niu Wanli noticed and quickly let go. He said, rather embarrassed, “I saw that you seemed to want to enter the Ten Thousand Demons Sect, so I stopped you. Actually, our Ten Thousand Demons Sect has many good cultivation methods, but they are all suited to demons. We do not have any methods especially suitable for humans. You can only choose one sect, and this is not the place best suited to you.”
What a… kind cow.
But I am a demon! A grass demon! Lin Mianmian looked around. Seeing that only Niu Wanli was at the Ten Thousand Demons Sect, she silently swallowed and tested again. “Can I not learn the demons’ cultivation methods?”
“You can learn them, but you are human. Even if you do, you will not make much progress.” Niu Wanli looked completely honest.
So he could not tell she was a demon. What about other people? Could they tell she was a demon? Lin Mianmian’s thoughts turned over and over. Then… her pant leg was tugged.
Whose rabbit was this? So cute!
The tiny rabbit was white and plump. First, it scratched Lin Mianmian’s pant leg. Then it wriggled and simply sprawled on her shoe.
Soft, light, warm. Lin Mianmian completely forgot that rabbits ate grass too. Her whole heart filled with joy.
“Is it yours?” Lin Mianmian crouched and carefully looked at the rabbit, then raised her head to look at Niu Wanli.
Niu Wanli honestly shook his head.
So cute. She wanted to pet it so much. But what if it was a demon? Would that be disrespectful? Lin Mianmian’s hand hovered in midair, tangled.
Unexpectedly, the little rabbit suddenly raised its head. Its watery little eyes looked at her twice. Then it stood up and rubbed its head against Lin Mianmian’s palm.
So soft. So warm. So adorable. Lin Mianmian was captured.
A-Bai smiled. These foolish humans truly could not resist even a tiny trace of this rabbit’s charm.
And so, Niu Wanli watched with his own eyes as Lin Mianmian was led, step by step, by the rabbit from next door into the Five Elements Sect’s barrier. Although she was not suited to the Ten Thousand Demons Sect… using cuteness to steal people like this did not seem very proper either. Niu Wanli lowered his head in disappointment and rubbed his horn.
After following the hopping rabbit for several steps, Lin Mianmian suddenly sensed something wrong when she crossed a certain point.
A very familiar… fragrance.
Lin Mianmian raised her head and saw the familiar noodle stall close before her. And the person cooking noodles – was that not the Qiao family’s young man who had been rolled away by the cultivator?
Mission complete! A-Bai happily hopped onto the table beside the noodle stall. Time to eat.
“Make her stay and eat noodles, or you do not get to eat either,” Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice sounded in A-Bai’s heart at the perfect time.
This is so unfriendly it will be hard for us to stay friends, you know!
When the little girl followed A-Bai into the Five Elements Sect’s barrier, Yuan Zhaoyang, for some reason, suddenly felt a strange nervousness, like someone nearing home but afraid to enter. She turned and hid inside the little house, only sending A-Bai the order to keep the girl.
So Lin Mianmian saw the little white rabbit hop onto the dining table, hop back down, circle around beside the noodle stall, return to Lin Mianmian’s feet, and lie flat.
There were quite a few people listening to the Five Elements Sect’s introduction at the moment, but no one sat down to eat noodles. After all, although the noodles were free, the sign said people entering the Five Elements Sect could eat.
When Lin Mianmian smelled the sauce-braised meat, hunger rose in her belly again. But after seeing so many sects, her heart had developed a different longing for the cultivation world. With her spirit fuller, she could resist her body’s hunger a little better.
Now, seeing that little white rabbit trying its best to act cute and adorable, thinking of all kinds of ways to lead her toward the noodle stall, Lin Mianmian instead grew a little alert.
A-Bai had no idea that Lin Mianmian was not someone born and raised in this world. She only thought Lin Mianmian was a little girl who liked small animals, and so she continued walking the path of selling cuteness as bait.
But Lin Mianmian gradually stepped back, preparing to leave this little rabbit that seemed a bit strange.
Idiot! Yuan Zhaoyang, who had been paying close attention to the developments outside, was also impressed by how deeply A-Bai had entered her role. The audience was about to leave, and she had not even noticed?
Just as Lin Mianmian was about to back out of the Five Elements Sect’s barrier, Yuan Zhaoyang finally could not hold herself back. She walked quickly out of the little house.
Lin Mianmian heard the door bang open and reflexively looked over. Her eyes met Yuan Zhaoyang’s straight on.
White robes drifting, almost like an immortal. Cloud-like hair arranged high, beautiful eyes bright.
She truly was a very beautiful immortal. Lin Mianmian even felt that the woman who had suddenly walked out of the little house completely deserved the title of immortal.
Only those eyes. They shifted with sorrow, full of unshed tears and grievance. If Lin Mianmian had not been the person meeting her gaze, she would really have thought the woman was looking at a faithless lover.