The Young Lady Only Wants to Cultivate Immortality Chapter 54

A simple phrase drained Shi Qingqian of her last bit of strength. Her vision blurred, and she fell into an even deeper coma.
But in the abyss-like darkness, she saw a crimson mist, like blood.
In the deep, dark night, the moon glowed with an eerie red light – it was the blood from her own body. As she stared at the Qiongdian Peak close by, a sense of weightlessness seized her heart. Shi Qingqian knew she had failed.
After entering Mystic Crane Mountain, she met Apothecary Mu Ling, who was recorded on the list of servants who had signed the Demon Lord’s Eternal Covenant. From her, Shi Qingqian learned that during the period her mother died, there was only one Soul Transformation Realm expert not present on Mystic Crane Mountain: Saint Venerable Dao Rong of Qiongdian Peak.
During that time, everyone on Mystic Crane Mountain knew that it was the century mark for Saint Venerable Dao Rong to emerge from seclusion. Whenever he emerged, he would always undergo a tribulation outside Mystic Crane Mountain, returning either in a century or a millennium.
However, Apothecary Mu Ling believed that while the timing matched, Saint Venerable Dao Rong, in her view, would not easily take a life.
Especially not just because the other party was a demon.
She wasn’t just making a wild guess; once, Mystic Crane Mountain had been invaded by demons several times, and on one occasion, the situation was so critical that Saint Venerable Dao Rong emerged from seclusion early.
After he quelled that battle, he showed leniency to any demons who had not committed needless slaughter, purifying their demonic nature and allowing them to return.
How could such a benevolent person kill someone merely because they were a demon, especially when that person was pregnant with his child?
It made no sense no matter how she looked at it.
Apothecary Mu Ling wasn’t trying to avoid avenging her master or absolve Saint Venerable Dao Rong; she was simply telling Shi Qingqian what she knew honestly.
She had originally been a demon herself, but she didn’t want to cultivate the Demonic Path or stay in the messy Demon Realm. It was Shi Qingqian’s mother, her master, who had sealed the demonic energy within her.
Only then could she enter Mystic Crane Mountain, a sacred land cultivators dreamed of, and do as she pleased there.
When her master died, she knew immediately through the Demon Lord’s Eternal Covenant within her.
But at the time, she was on Mystic Crane Mountain and didn’t know where her master was. Though she yearned to avenge her, she didn’t even know who the enemy was.
She had suffered in anguish until she met Shi Qingqian.
She had never imagined her master would have a child. After learning Shi Qingqian was her master’s daughter, Apothecary Mu Ling immediately acknowledged her as her new master.
However, Shi Qingqian did not cultivate the Demonic Path and was unwilling to renew the Demon Lord’s Eternal Covenant with them.
Nevertheless, in Apothecary Mu Ling’s heart, Shi Qingqian was already her new master. Knowing she was looking for the murderer, Apothecary Mu Ling swore to help find that person!
Although the current clues all pointed to Saint Venerable Dao Rong, Apothecary Mu Ling still couldn’t fully believe it. She worried the killer might be intentionally misleading them, hoping her master would confront Saint Venerable Dao Rong.
If both sides were gravely wounded, the killer might gain from their struggle. Furthermore, her master stood no chance against Saint Venerable Dao Rong. It was also possible the killer sought to use Saint Venerable Dao Rong to eliminate her master.
Perhaps the killer had appeared to be on Mystic Crane Mountain during that time, but it might have been a clone.
Soul Transformation Realm experts can create clones.
Ultimately, she didn’t believe that person was Saint Venerable Dao Rong. Moreover, even if he truly was, her master’s current abilities were no match for him.
It would be better to recuperate and cultivate properly. Her master surely wouldn’t want to see anything happen to her child.
Shi Qingqian didn’t agree with her. She wanted to know the truth.
Shi Qingqian ascended to Qiongdian Peak, but before she could find anyone, she was struck down by the moonlight restriction barrier.
That individual was indeed more powerful than she had imagined, capable of using moonlight as a barrier. Such strength was no longer that of a mortal.
If he truly intended to kill her, she would be utterly defenseless.
Shi Qingqian’s doubts didn’t decrease but rather grew. If this person was the killer, how could Jin Siliu have managed to escape the pursuit with A’Ling?
The moment she fell from Qiongdian Peak to the ground, Shi Qingqian felt as if her heart and lungs had burst. Fragments of her internal organs surged up her throat, but she held onto a shred of consciousness, forcing herself to swallow back what she had vomited.
She didn’t want to die, and she couldn’t die.
Overwhelming pain quickly robbed her of clear consciousness. The torrential rain mercilessly lashed at her already shattered wounds.
Gushing rainwater carried away the last of the blood from her body, washing away the tattered scraps of flesh clinging to her.
Shi Qingqian dragged her body, which felt as if it had been torn into a thousand gashes, and hid beneath a rock outcropping.
It hurt so much. Shi Qingqian was in so much pain she couldn’t tell if what flowed out was tears or blood. The blood clots in her throat made the rainwater seeping in reek of sickening gore.
It hurt so much that Shi Qingqian wondered if she would simply die from the pain.
She didn’t know how long she had been in pain. Her tightly clenched jaw had lost all sensation, and time stretched endlessly, as if a thousand years had passed.
No one found her, and no one came to save her.
Several times, Shi Qingqian felt she wouldn’t survive. Her body, submerged in the muddy rainwater, was so swollen it felt as if it could burst at any moment.
Her wounds were damp and festering. As her strength recovered day by day, the pain from her wounds also intensified each day.
She didn’t know what belief sustained her; perhaps it was simply the refusal to die.
A month later, Shi Qingqian felt some strength return to her limbs. She avoided people, returned to her cave dwelling, and went into seclusion for half a year to recover from her injuries.
Shi Qingqian felt a sudden, sharp pain in her heart, as if her skin was being torn apart. She looked at her dream self, bewildered. Why, despite it being a dream, could she genuinely feel that desperate agony?
That helpless despair, and that refusal to die.
But wasn’t she saved by A’Ling? Why hadn’t A’Ling appeared in the dream?
This was indeed a dream, a nightmare.
Shi Qingqian watched the dreamscapes flash by like fleeting shadows, blending reality and illusion. Time seemed to accelerate, and she couldn’t discern the specific events taking place.
When the scene normalized, she saw her dream self, stubbornly ascending Qiongdian Peak once again.
And once again, she was struck down by the Qiongdian Peak barrier, like an eagle with broken wings, plummeting with a mournful cry.
But this time, it was much better than before.
Shi Qingqian struggled to rise despite the intense pain. This time, she managed to drag herself into a dense patch of reeds.
The downpour continued to mercilessly wash over her blood-stained body through the gaps in the reeds. She was still in so much pain that she could only manage shallow breaths.
Enduring the intense pain, she found a soft spot and, trembling, huddled her riddled body. She knew what she would endure next.
She knew all the immense pain she had to bear and the harsh storms she had to weather.
She would endure that long month, which felt like a thousand years, all by herself.
The fierce winds raged, the reeds trembled violently, and the booming thunder and lightning seemed as if they would overturn heaven and earth.
Shi Qingqian felt a pang of regret. Perhaps it would have been better under the rock outcropping from before; these fragile reeds offered her no shelter at all.
Suddenly, after a distant clap of thunder, there was a “thump.” Shi Qingqian felt the reeds around her collapse, followed by a miserable cry of pain beside her.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Hiss, why is there such a big rock in these reeds?!”
A’Ling hugged her scraped knees, grimacing in pain. She kept blowing on the wound, trying to alleviate the piercing agony.
That voice…
Shi Qingqian gathered her strength and forced open her eyelids to look at the dark figure who had fallen. Just one glance made her eyelids involuntarily twitch.
The newcomer was disheveled, soaked from head to toe as if they had just crawled out of water. Their hair was plastered wetly to their face, revealing only one dark, shining eye.
Upon seeing Shi Qingqian, the owner of that eye surprisingly pushed aside the black hair obscuring their vision, wide-eyed and staring at her, as if overly startled, mouth agape but silent.
As soon as her hair was pushed away, Shi Qingqian saw her clearly. Just as she had thought, it was that fool.
That fool had no idea what idiotic thing she’d done again. Her face was a messy mix of colors, and the eye previously hidden by her hair was terrifyingly swollen and bruised, whether from a beating or a fall.
And her dripping nose, below the bridge, was a gaping wound. Rainwater mixed with fresh blood streamed down her cheek from the purplish-red injury, blending with her bloody snot and almost flowing into her half-open mouth through the deep cut at the corner of her lips.
“Oh my heavens, what happened to you, you ugly thing? How did you get so terribly injured? Where’s your fur?!”
Shi Qingqian slightly parted her eyelids, looking at the person’s grotesque appearance in front of her. Hearing herself called an ‘ugly thing,’ she scoffed internally. Still so lacking in self-awareness.
She really should be given a mirror to see how ugly she looked herself, yet she had the gall to call others an ugly thing.
Every time Shi Qingqian met her, A’Ling invariably stirred ripples in her calm, placid heart. She always found it difficult to treat her as an irrelevant person, and A’Ling always possessed the unique ability to make her want to look at her more, even if it was irritating.
But right now, she truly didn’t want to see that face. Shi Qingqian struggled to move, hoping to get her out of sight, out of mind. However, the moment she shifted, the pain that felt like it was tearing at her internal organs caused her vision to black out.
Her limbs went weak, and Shi Qingqian collapsed helplessly to the ground. Her wounds instantly erupted with fresh mists of blood.
“Ah, you, don’t move! Oh heavens, why are you so badly injured? Damn it, which bastard did this? Is there no humanity left?!”
A’Ling looked at the ugly thing before her. Its entire body was covered in terrifying scars, with clumps of clinging, torn flesh, looking as if someone had brutally flayed it alive.
She knew there were many non-human things on Mystic Crane Mountain too. That darn crystal ball that measured ‘goodness points’ – to think such a deranged scum who’d cruelly abuse a dog could get in!
“Don’t die, please don’t die! What do I do? What do I do? Right, spiritual energy, infuse spiritual energy!”
A’Ling watched in panic as the ugly dog struggled briefly before collapsing weakly, seemingly lifeless. In a flurry, she pressed her hand onto the chest of the ugly dog, which seemed to have no good skin left, and channeled spiritual energy into it, hoping to protect its heart meridian.
After Shi Qingqian collapsed in agony, her thoughts became hazy, and her vision was reduced to mere specks of light, unable to discern her surroundings. Suddenly, a warmth spread through her abnormally cold body.
That warm current entered her body, forming a protective barrier around her heart meridian.
Shi Qingqian froze, losing her ability to think. That person, infusing spiritual energy into her?
How could that be?
Shi Qingqian felt she must be hallucinating. How could someone like that waste spiritual energy to save an unrelated person?
A’Ling used her free hand to vigorously wipe away the rainwater obscuring her vision. Seeing that the ugly dog on the ground showed no signs of improvement, her heart pounded with urgency, and her body trembled.
Its injuries were too severe. A’Ling knew she couldn’t save this ugly thing by herself. After using spiritual energy to protect its heart meridian, she took off her water-soaked outer robe and wrung it out forcefully.
A’Ling held her breath, her hands trembling, and carefully, little by little, slowly lifted the ugly dog from the ground. She wrapped its bloodied body, where no good flesh could be seen, in her clothes.
Her inner garment was instantly dyed crimson.
A’Ling vigorously wiped her face, pushing away the bothersome strands of hair behind her ear. In her swollen, bruised eye, her gaze was resolute.
“I will definitely save you.”
She quickly formed a protective barrier around the ugly dog in her arms and flew on her sword towards Stony Peak Mountain. She could only go beg Apothecary Mu Ling at Zhenpu Medicine Pavilion; the medical cultivators in the cave dwellings would certainly not treat an ugly dog’s injuries.
Though Apothecary Mu Ling had a bit of a temper, whenever A’Ling was injured, only Apothecary Mu Ling would treat her.
A’Ling soared into the air on her sword, looking down at the ugly dog in her arms. Its appearance was truly too pathetic.
She had thought her day was miserable enough, but she never expected to encounter someone even more wretched. Who had such an ugly dog offended to be treated with such cruelty?
“Don’t worry, I will find someone to save you.”
Fierce winds swept, and torrential rain raged. It was A’Ling’s first time flying on her sword in such weather. Zhenpu Medicine Pavilion was located deep within Mystic Crane Mountain, and the treacherous, overlapping peaks along the way made A’Ling feel as if all the blood in her body had gathered in her eyes.
She didn’t dare blink, fearing she might crash into something if she wasn’t careful.
The whistling wind rushed past her ears. Shi Qingqian looked up through the barrier. In the flashing shadows of the dark, stormy night, she could only see half of that person’s face.
Her jaw was tightly clenched, as if she were gritting her molars, and the contours of her tensed facial muscles were visible.
The swiftly falling rain lashed her face crimson. Perhaps sensing Shi Qingqian’s gaze, the person suddenly lowered their head and quickly glanced at her.
It was just a glance before they continued looking straight ahead, but then a voice called out from above.
In the torrential rain, the voice was somewhat muffled, but the words were strikingly clear.
She said: “Don’t be afraid, I will definitely save you.”
Shi Qingqian saw that as she spoke, blood beads seeped from the wound at the corner of her lips, vanishing into the night with the falling rain.
So ugly…
So ugly that Shi Qingqian didn’t want to look anymore.
She forcefully closed her eyes.
Suddenly, a dizzying sense of weightlessness overwhelmed her. Shi Qingqian’s heart felt as if it were fiercely seized and hoisted high, only to be abruptly let go, plummeting from a great height into a dark abyss.
Shi Qingqian forced open her impossibly heavy eyelids, regaining a sliver of light.
Through the hazy light, a face, not fair-skinned but clearly very healthy, slowly drew closer, carrying a faint smile.
“Awake?”
A clear, pleasant voice, tinged with surprise, reached her ears. Shi Qingqian’s ears twitched. This voice was identical to the one in her dream that had told her ‘Don’t be afraid.’
Shi Qingqian raised her gaze to look. Through her blurry vision, she could only make out a vague silhouette.
She forcefully squinted, trying to bring her vision into focus.
A’Ling saw the ugly dog trying to force open its recently sutured eyelids. Worried it might tear the wound open again, she gently placed her hand over its eyelid.
She felt the eyelashes fluttering violently against her palm, a ticklish sensation as they brushed against her skin.
A’Ling let out a heavy breath. Since it had the strength to open its eyes, she figured it wasn’t in critical condition anymore.
This time, Apothecary Mu Ling spent twice as long treating the ugly dog than in the previous life. A’Ling waited outside from dusk till dawn, and then from dawn until the sun was high in the sky.
Just now, it looked like midday when the door finally opened.
Apothecary Mu Ling told her to keep an eye on the ugly dog while she went to prepare some special medicine.
Shi Qingqian’s hazy thoughts finally began to clear. With one eye covered, she could only use the other to look.
The scene before her gradually sharpened. Shi Qingqian gazed at the familiar face in front of her; its eyes, nose, and mouth were all fine, and its eyes were as bright as ever.
Feeling the warmth on her eyelid, Shi Qingqian’s entire body instantly relaxed. She was awake.
Shi Qingqian’s tightly clutched heart finally eased. Thankfully, it was all a dream, and A’Ling was fine.
She didn’t know why she had such a strange dream. Looking at the bright-eyed, white-toothed, vibrant A’Ling before her, her eyes felt slightly sore.
A’Ling’s pitiful state in the dream was truly upsetting to witness.
Shi Qingqian took a deep breath, and her lightly trembling eyelashes brushed against the warm palm again. With her other eye, she gave A’Ling, who was protecting her eye, a grateful glance.
Thinking of the dream scenes—the first time falling from Qiongdian Peak with no one to save her, and the second time encountering A’Ling, but in such a pathetic state.
She didn’t know why she had such dreams.
Even stranger, despite it being merely a dream, she had genuinely experienced the pain and despair of that month when she hadn’t met A’Ling for the first time.
She was grateful it was just a dream. In reality, she had met this soft-hearted person in front of her, who had even created a barrier for her in such heavy rain.
Shi Qingqian’s gaze, filled with gratitude, relief, and tender affection, made A’Ling momentarily puzzled.
A’Ling blinked, carefully examining the ugly dog’s gaze. She really did see gratitude, and an indescribable… gentleness?
She couldn’t quite decipher the meaning behind the ugly dog’s eyes, but one thing was certain: it was highly unusual.
In her previous life, she had never seen gratitude in the ugly dog’s eyes. It was an ungrateful dog thing.
A’Ling thought, It’s probably because its injuries are much worse this time than in the previous life, and it barely escaped death. That white-eyed wolf—no, white-eyed dog—only then showed this tiny bit of gratitude.
The more A’Ling thought about it, the more convinced she was.
But regardless, whether it was gratitude or something else, A’Ling didn’t want any repayment. She just considered it a good deed.
Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Saving a dog’s life… she’d count it as a five-story pagoda.
No, wait, for such an ugly dog, it should be one level less. Four stories.
A’Ling silently tilted her head back, looking three feet above her, and quietly said in her heart, ‘Remember to add this to my merits.’
No sooner had she finished her thought than Apothecary Mu Ling entered, carrying several medicine bottles and a spatial bag.
A’Ling’s heart sank. She immediately stood up, ready to bid farewell and leave.
Apothecary Mu Ling raised a hand to stop her. “Take this Mutated Beast with you.”
A’Ling: “Huh?”
Apothecary Mu Ling: “Hmm? Is there a problem?”
A’Ling pursed her lips. “This isn’t my dog.” In this life, she had no intention of keeping this heartless ugly dog.
Apothecary Mu Ling frowned, her brows tightly furrowed. “This isn’t a dog, it’s a Mutated Beast.”
A’Ling immediately nodded. “Alright, Mutated Beast. I don’t keep Mutated Beasts.”
She didn’t even want spirit beasts, let alone Mutated Beasts. Besides, what kind of Mutated Beast was this? It was just a slightly uglier dog.
Apothecary Mu Ling’s temple twitched. She glanced at her master beside her, seeing her gaze fixed on A’Ling, seemingly wanting to leave with her.
It was too crowded and had too many prying eyes here; it wasn’t suitable for her master’s recovery. Furthermore, with her master injured, she would recover faster in a place with abundant spiritual energy.
The most spiritually abundant places on Mystic Crane Mountain were the various cave dwellings located within the Three Peaks and Twelve Cave Abodes.
She cleared her throat forcefully, quickly changing her expression. With a cold glare, she fixed her eyes on A’Ling.
“Take it away immediately! You brought this Mutated Beast here, and now you want to leave it for me to care for? Do I look like I have nothing to do? Hurry up and leave! And these medicines are for internal use, the wound medicine in the spatial bag is for external application, three times a day!”
She spoke, giving A’Ling no chance to refuse, and forcefully shoved the items into A’Ling’s hands. Then she turned, giving her master an apologetic look, and carefully picked her up, placing her into A’Ling’s arms.
And so, A’Ling once again brought the ugly dog back with her.
Back at her cave dwelling, A’Ling unceremoniously dumped everything she was holding onto the stone table. Pointing at the ugly dog, she fumed, “I must truly owe you! I’m telling you, I’ll only keep you for a month. Once your injuries heal, you can get out!”
As for the medicine Apothecary Mu Ling gave, she didn’t even need to open the spatial bag to know that it contained enough medicine to cover her entire bed, complete with instructions for use and precautions.
It was such a hassle. In her previous life, she had cared for this ugly dog for a whole month.
Shi Qingqian lay on the stone table, head drooping, silently gazing at A’Ling, her eyes seeming a little hurt.
A’Ling truly suspected the heavy rain last night had made her sick. She kept feeling that the dog’s gaze was somehow familiar, and it was unnerving.
Although she said she’d only keep it for a month, she still wove a bed for the ugly dog out of Spirit Gathering Vines and provided a food bowl and water dish—it lacked nothing it needed.
However, this time she wouldn’t painstakingly prepare delicious food for this ugly dog like she did in her previous life.
In her previous life, she had even gone to great lengths to roast rabbit meat for it and cook Cordyceps pigeon soup. After eating so many delicious things from her, that ugly dog showed no appreciation whatsoever.
It hadn’t even wagged its tail at her once!
Not only that, but every time she offered it food, it acted as if it was doing her a favor, always looking like it was begging to be beaten, as if saying, “You beg me, and only then will I eat.”
Truly infuriating! A’Ling’s teeth itched with frustration. She felt she had been too kind to it in her previous life, which was why it had developed such an irritating disposition.
This time, A’Ling wouldn’t bother. Whatever she ate, whatever was left, that’s what it would get. Eat it or not, she didn’t care.
However, for the ugly dog’s injuries, A’Ling meticulously applied the medicine as Apothecary Mu Ling instructed: three times a day, various ointments, powders, and liquids, strictly according to the usage and precautions.
A’Ling diligently cared for it for a week, and the ugly dog was finally able to stand with effort.
“Good, you can walk now. The door is right there. If you want to leave, leave. I’m not keeping you here.”
After applying the medicine to the ugly dog, A’Ling gently wrapped it in bandages.
She had just checked; the most severely torn wounds had already grown new flesh. She estimated its fur would probably grow back soon.
She gently tied the bandage knot, then raised her head and rotated her neck, which had grown stiff from looking down for too long. Seeing the ugly dog silently staring at her, she thought, I really owe this dog thing.
“I didn’t lock the door. If you want to leave, leave. I don’t expect any repayment from you. But in the future, if you see an ugly dog thing like yourself, remember to tell it to stay inside more, don’t scare people. And you too, try to hide in a deep mountain. Don’t come out again and get flayed. Next time, I won’t save you.”
Shi Qingqian had grown used to such words over the past seven days. She lowered her perked-up ears.
This was also something she had discovered over the past seven days: whenever she did that, A’Ling always seemed to cheer up a little.
There it goes again!
There it was again, that pathetic look with its drooping ears. A’Ling hadn’t seen this appearance in its previous life. After looking at it for a while, she actually found it a little cute.
But A’Ling had already made up her mind: this time, she absolutely wouldn’t keep this ungrateful ugly dog. Cuteness wouldn’t help.
“Don’t play pitiful! You can walk now, why aren’t you leaving? What, do you plan to retire here?!”
As A’Ling said this, she saw the ugly dog look at her, its eyes slightly brightening. She frowned deeply. Was it so dense it didn’t understand sarcasm?
What a stupid dog!
“What are you looking at, you ugly thing? You want me to support you in your old age? You’ve got quite the imagination!”
She was about to curse it a bit more when suddenly, she heard a sound from the doorway.
“A’Ling, I heard you’ve taken in a dog?”
A’Ling heard the voice and felt a surge of pleasant surprise. The curses she was about to utter died on her lips, the anger on her face vanished instantly, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously lifted as she quickly stepped forward to open the door.
“Gu Jingyang, when did you come out?”
The person who arrived was none other than Gu Jingyang, who had previously been in seclusion for cultivation.
A’Ling circled Gu Jingyang, sensing that Gu Jingyang’s aura was truly different. Standing near her, she could feel a refreshing, clear aura.
Gu Jingyang smiled, allowing A’Ling to inspect her. When A’Ling had finished circling and returned to face her, Gu Jingyang extended her hand, palm facing up, and showed A’Ling the golden light of inner energy burning in her palm.
“So impressive!” A’Ling looked at the dazzling golden light, pure and formidable. Gu Jingyang’s inner energy had become even more refined.
Gu Jingyang smiled and withdrew her inner energy. “A’Ling, you’ll definitely break through soon too.”
At this, A’Ling felt a bit troubled. She had also experienced hallucinations, but showed no signs of an impending breakthrough.
Gu Jingyang smiled and changed the subject. “By the way, A’Ling, what made you decide to get a dog?”
As soon as she emerged from seclusion, she heard that A’Ling had taken in a dog. It was supposedly very ugly, and A’Ling even kept it hidden, not letting anyone see it.
People in cave dwellings usually raised spirit beasts, typically for use as mounts or to enhance combat power.
Dogs were practically useless to them; their size usually prevented them from being mounts, and their combat power was inferior to spirit beasts. She was curious why A’Ling had suddenly gotten a dog.
Perhaps it was some powerful kind of dog, who knew.
A’Ling led her inside, explaining, “I found it on the road. I didn’t plan to keep it. Once its injuries heal, I’ll let it go back where it came from.”
Gu Jingyang nodded, understanding. This was indeed the A’Ling she knew; whenever she encountered injured cats or dogs, she would always grumble about the trouble while bringing them home and meticulously caring for them.
However, one thing Gu Jingyang didn’t expect was that in such situations, unless the cat or dog chose to leave, A’Ling would most likely continue to keep them.
This time, it was quite unexpected. A’Ling hadn’t intended to keep it.
Entering the room, Gu Jingyang paused, her lips twitching, upon seeing the ‘dog’ inside.
“This is your dog?”
Gu Jingyang stared in astonishment at the furless, black, one-eyed-open-one-eye-closed, sharp-mouthed, perked-eared creature before her. From no angle did it resemble a dog!
And it was horrifyingly ugly. Gu Jingyang forcefully closed her eyes, turning her gaze away, not wanting to look a second time.
“It’s not my dog,” A’Ling emphasized. She wasn’t planning to keep it.
Gu Jingyang shook her head. “No, what I mean is, this is a dog?”
As she asked, she forced herself to look at the animal in the dog’s bed again, despite her discomfort. She couldn’t tell what kind of mutated creature it was, but it clearly had no relation to a dog.
A’Ling walked over to the ugly dog and casually nudged the Spirit Gathering Vine bed with her foot. “Yes, it’s a dog, even if it’s a bit ugly. Come on, bark.”
Seeing the ugly dog completely unresponsive, showing no respect for her at all, A’Ling slapped its head, lowering her voice to threaten, “Bark! Or I’ll throw you out!”
Gu Jingyang nearly choked on her own saliva. She saw A’Ling’s ‘dog’ silently glance in her direction.
How to describe that glance? The emotions were so complex. Gu Jingyang stood rooted to the spot.
Over there, A’Ling, seeing the ugly dog refusing to cooperate, pulled at its drooping ears on its head, her expression serious, insisting it bark.
And the dog, with a conflicted expression somewhat similar to A’Ling’s, looked very torn, but truly unwilling to bark.
By the end, it even looked a little hurt.
Gu Jingyang stood frozen in astonishment. The scene before her, somehow, made her incredibly awkward.
She felt this scene was oddly familiar. It was like before, when she was still in the Gu family, and visiting relatives would insist their children greet her.
Gu Jingyang would always say it wasn’t necessary at such times, that as relatives, they shouldn’t be so formal.
It was the same now. She wanted to tell A’Ling it wasn’t necessary; she didn’t have to hear the dog bark.
And she didn’t know if it was her imagination, but she felt as if the dog was about to shatter!