“How could it be you?” The chubby white cat took a few steps back, shrinking under the corner of the table, only revealing half of its cat head.
“Is it very surprising to see me? Is it very unexpected?” Jiu Hui lifted the quilt and sat at the table, propping her chin up with one hand and beckoning to the chubby cat, “Why are you hiding so far away? Come here.”
The little chubby cat looked at her warily. “Before I escaped, I made a point of asking around. This area is where the guests from the smaller sects stay. Why are you staying here?”
“Well, what a coincidence. I’m a disciple of a minor sect.” Jiu Hui poured two cups of tea, one for herself and the other she pushed to the side, raising an eyebrow at the kitten.
“Why did you join a small sect? Are you here to be a spy?” The little chubby cat jumped onto the table reluctantly and took a sip of tea. “Ugh!”
Why did humans like to drink this stuff? It was really a disgusting habit for tigers.
“I just went out to seek knowledge and learn skills. Don’t fill your head with conspiracy theories.” Jiu Hui moved her cup away in disgust, lest the other party’s spit splash into her cup. “What’s wrong with a small sect? My fellow disciples are all talented, and the sect’s feng shui is good for people, especially for me. What about you? How did you get caught by the Jiutian Sect?”
Bai Qi didn’t believe a word Jiu Hui said. Back then, he had only taken a drumstick from her, and she had pinned him to the ground and broken his leg. It had taken him half a year to recover. When he finally healed and left the mountain, he found that rumors had spread throughout the mountains that he had bullied a child, causing him to lose face.
“How could Grandpa Tiger be captured? I was tricked by a fox spirit!” Bai Qi was furious when he mentioned this incident. “He told me he had found a good opportunity and invited me to join him for a feast. I didn’t expect him to trick me into becoming someone’s mount. I’m the mighty overlord of the tiger clan. How could I endure such humiliation?!”
“Oh, so you took advantage of the Jiutian Sect disciples busy clearing out the Demon Cult members, stealthily transformed into a kitten to escape the Hundred Beasts Garden, then blended into a small sect, and had someone take you away?” Jiu Hui reached out and pinched the fat on his belly. “You’ve gotten quite plump.”
It was rumored that the qiongqi was a fierce and evil god, who ignored the words of good people and only listened to the words of bad people. She didn’t know if this stupid cat had the blood of the qiongqi, but it did have the habit of listening to the words of bad people, which was somewhat reminiscent of the qiongqi*.
TN: qiongqi
“I, I did that as a stopgap measure.” Bai Qi kicked his hind legs and struggled for a while. After struggling to no avail, he completely flattened himself into a cat pancake, looking utterly defeated. “Little yao girl, don’t go too far!”
“Oh?” Jiu Hui rubbed its cat’s head, not afraid at all.
“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll tell others that you’re not human, but a yao?” Bai Qi couldn’t bear it anymore. “At worst, we’ll die together.”
“Who would die with you, a mixed-blood tiger?” Jiu Hui flicked her finger, and Bai Qi rolled around on the table.
“Why don’t you take a guess? If I were to shout that there’s a yao here, what do you think would happen to you?” Jiu Hui washed her hands clean with the Water-Drawing technique and slowly wiped her fingertips. “The sect I paid homage to at the Wenxian Terrace had my aptitude tested with a sect jade pendant. If you say I’m a yao, who would believe you?”
“It’s just a yao that was discovered by a sect disciple while it was escaping, and it wanted to frame an innocent sect disciple.” Jiu Hui smiled and tugged on its ear. “Am I right, little white cat?”
Bai Qi was so frightened that its ears stood up. It scratched its claws on the table and said, “Speak, what do you want me to do so that you’ll take me with you…” It glanced at Jiu Hui and swallowed its pride to change its self-reference. “What do you want me to do so that you’ll take me away?”
Jiu Hui smiled without saying anything.carpreads.pages.dev
“At worst, I’ll form a contract with you and become your mount.” Bai Qi felt that he had endured to the utmost. “Being your mount is better than being someone else’s mount, but you have to provide me with food and lodging, and I want meat with every meal.”
“A contract?” Jiu Hui roughly rubbed Bai Qi’s head twice. “A contract requires two drops of our heart’s blood. It may seem like it’s restricting you, but it’s actually not safe for me either. What if one day you’d rather risk your life and use those two drops of heart’s blood to scheme against me? Wouldn’t I be the one losing out? We’re both decent yaos. Don’t try to fool me with something that human cultivators don’t know about.”
“You yao girl, how come you’re more suspicious than a human? Which yao would risk their life to form a contract with you, to serve you like an ox or a horse, just to scheme against you?” Bai Qi was somewhat discouraged when he saw that Jiu Hui was unmoved. “Tell me, what will it take for you to help me?”
“You stay here and behave yourself, and I’ll see how I feel.” Jiu Hui took a pill out of her storage ring and stuffed it into Bai Qi’s mouth.
As soon as the pill entered his mouth, Bai Qi let out a scream, “What did you feed me?!”
“Poison.” Seeing Bai Qi frantically scratching its throat with its claws, Jiu Hui held its paws down. “Alright, what I gave you was a Yao Transformation Pill. This pill will help you conceal your demonic aura. This medicine sells for twenty thousand spirit stones a pill in the yao realm. Considering that I broke your leg back then, I’ll give you a discount. I’ll put eighteen thousand spirit stones on your tab.”
Bai Qi: “…”
If it hadn’t been so poor that it couldn’t even afford to eat, would it have been tricked by a fox spirit into becoming someone’s mount?
Eighteen thousand?
It would be better to take its life!
His* eyeballs rolled around. “Alright, I’ll return it to you once I escape safely.”
TN: yes, the author is switching between ‘it’ and ‘he’ pronouns.
Anyway, he was a yao, not some upright gentleman who cares about repaying debts!
“Sleep quietly and don’t make a sound to bother me, or I’ll boil you into tiger bone soup.” Jiu Hui threw a quilt to Bai Qi and lay back down on her bed.
Bai Qi struggled to crawl out of the covers and glanced at Jiu Hui, who was already lying in bed. He gnashed his teeth fiercely. When Jiu Hui turned over, he quickly put his head back down and closed his eyes.
To be a tiger, one must be able to bend and stretch, only then could one accomplish great things.
It licked its tongue. This little yao girl was really rich. She could even take out something as rare as a Yao Transformation Pill. If it…
“Smack.” A small stone hit it on the forehead.
“Go to sleep now, and don’t think nonsense. If you think any more, I’ll stew you.”
Bai Qi: “…”
Bah, he knew that this yao girl was up to no good. If she could break his leg when she was five, she would be able to kill him when she was eighteen!
As the sky turned bright, the Jiutian Sect was filled with joy, as if no one had been affected by the infiltration of the Demon Cult. As for the loss of a yao beast in the Hundred Beasts Garden, it was impossible to attract the attention of the guests.
Jiu Hui and Zhi You dressed up and were taken by Yu Jing to visit the elders at first light. Although the elders of the Jiutian Sect were not enthusiastic towards them, they were very generous. After visiting them all, Jiu Hui received many elixirs, spirit stones, and magic weapons.
“The celebration is about to begin. We can visit them again later.” Yu Jing tidied her clothes. “You two must remember that respecting elders is a traditional virtue in our cultivation world.”
“Yes, yes, I’ve got it, Master.” Jiu Hui touched her purse, feeling satisfied. She would come again next time.
“Let’s go, it’s time to go to the banquet…” Yu Jing touched the hairpin on her temple, “It’s time to congratulate Daoist Master Jin Yi.”
The three master and disciples walked forward at a leisurely pace. Zhi You glanced at Jiu Hui, but she ignored him. After walking for a while, he glanced at Jiu Hui again. “You don’t seem to be talking to me today.”
Jiu Hui crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t like to talk, so what am I supposed to say to you?”
Zhi You looked at her in confusion.
“When the sect masters came yesterday, you hid in the corner and didn’t say a word.” Jiu Hui pointed a finger at him. “As a fellow disciple, what were you doing when the Sect Master of the Wanhuo Sect wronged me?”
Zhi You recalled earnestly, “I was drawing my sword.”
“Why are you pulling out your sword? Are you going to fight the Sect Master of the Wanhuo Sect?” Jiu Hui was exasperated. “Can you beat him? When we’re in the public eye, we should reason with them instead of fighting when we can’t beat them. We absolutely can’t suffer any losses. Do you understand?”
Zhi You didn’t quite understand, but he didn’t dare to admit it, so he nodded in confusion.
“You clearly don’t get it. Did you never quarrel with your friends when you were a child?” Jiu Hui sighed.
Zhi You shook his head slowly, looking at Jiu Hui earnestly as he explained, “I’m sorry, I’ve been locked in a manor in the mountains since I was born. I’ve never had any friends, and I don’t know how to speak in front of a crowd. It’s my fault.”
Jiu Hui released her arms from around her chest, reached out and patted Zhi You on the shoulder, her movements exceptionally gentle. “It’s okay, I’ll teach you later. These are the snacks I got from the east kitchen of Jiutian Sect this morning. I’ll give you half.”
Zhi You took a small step forward, getting a little closer to Jiu Hui. “Yes.”
Yu Jing pretended not to know that her two disciples had had a minor falling out and then reconciled. She pointed to a black tower in the distance: “That’s the Zhenyao Prison. I heard that it not only suppresses evil yaos, but also a great yao who has cultivated for ten thousand years. When you two are sightseeing, be sure to avoid this place.”
The black tower stood still, surrounded by a gray mist. The copper bells hanging from the corners of the tower rang in the wind. The sound was not pleasant, but rather made the listener feel depressed and fearful.
Jiu Hui stopped and looked at the tower. After a moment, she looked away. “Why didn’t they kill that yao but instead imprisoned it in the tower? Isn’t Jiutian Sect afraid that it will escape?”
“Perhaps some things are not about unwillingness, but rather inability.” Yu Jing glanced around and lowered her voice. “There are rumors that this yao was tricked into the tower by Bu Ting, and not captured by the Jiutian Sect.”
“I don’t know about it escaping, but let’s get away from here anyway.” Yu Jing clasped her hands in front of her lower abdomen, a gentle smile on her face. “We won’t get any of the good stuff, so let’s not get involved in the bad stuff either.”
Jiu Hui nodded. Seeing her nod, Zhi You also nodded slightly.
Yu Jing’s sect token on her waist lit up. She turned to her two disciples and said, “City Lord Tao has something to ask me about. I’ll go over there first. You two go straight to the banquet hall and wait for me.”
Shortly after Yu Jing left, Jiu Hui and Zhi You ran into disciples from the Shenji School.
“I knew you two looked familiar. It’s you guys,” the Shenji School disciple said, looking the two up and down with disdain. “You’re all dressed up today. Did you buy new clothes with the spirit stones you stole from us?”
“Aren’t small sects in remote areas like this just begging for a living?” The sect’s head disciple hated Jiu Hui because due to her, his master had slapped him in front of everyone. “Look, you’re quite pretty. Why don’t you call me brother and I’ll give you two spirit stones?”
After saying that, he pretended to reach out to grab Jiu Hui’s sleeve, intending to humiliate and intimidate her.
This kind of timid and crybaby little girl was the easiest to deal with.
However, the moment he reached out, he was stunned as the other party flew out.
The next moment, the pretty boy with the little girl also flew out.
The sect’s head disciple was speechless.
What happened?
“Ah!” Jiu Hui lay on the ground, crying out in pain.
“Ah—” Zhi You followed with a slightly dull and calm shout.
Jiu Hui knelt on the ground and looked at him with an indescribable expression.
You learned it well, but don’t learn it again next time.
Author’s Note:
Jiu Hui: He pushed me!
Zhi You: He… pushed me?
Shenji School’s head disciple: Ah?!
A Little Reminder: It has been reported that a tiger yao from the wilderness believed the lie that yaos can eat well and drink spicy food, and was miserably tricked into becoming a mount for a sect. Once again, everyone is reminded to be vigilant and guard against fraud!