Now, except for shizun, only Mo Tianliao and the natural birds and beasts could enter, hence it was very quiet. When walking on the forest path, the crunching sound of the dead leaves rang out clearly.
He often went to the creek to barbecue. Mo Xiaozhao liked to sleep on a round stone with lots of sunlight by the creek, once he slept he would sleep for the whole day. Mo Tianliao went straight to the creek. Suddenly, he heard a dog barking from afar, causing his heart to suddenly stop for a moment.
Mo Xiaozhao was a spiritual beast, when ordinary domestic dogs saw him, they would immediately run away with their tails between their legs, how could they dare to bark arrogantly? Mo Tianliao’s heart was anxious, and could not help but speed up his pace.
“Woof, woof wu…” the barking was brief and did not sound angry. Mo Tianliao pushed open the branches and leaves of the forest and saw a greyish-white…wolf! Its body glowed with spiritual aura, it was a fairly strong spiritual beast!
Its figure looked strong and sturdy, body full of white fur, with large patches of pale black fur, and a stiff tail that would not bend. At a glance, it was clear that it was not a dog, but upon closer look, something was not right.
The white kitten lazily sprawled on the stone, basking in the sun, while the grey wolf ran in circles around the stone. Seeing the kitten ignoring him, he lifted his front paws to rest on the stone and sniffed the kitten. The kitten glanced at him, lifted his paw, displaying the shining tips of his claws, and slapped the wolf.
“Awoo–” the wolf that was slapped immediately jumped up and stuck out his tongue, trying to lick his scratched nose. Unable to reach his nose with his tongue, he tilted his head and stuck out his tongue to the side, and finally was able to lick a bit. Satisfied, he happily spun in circles in that same spot, barked two times, and stood up on another stone, tail wagging cheerfully.
Mo Tianliao’s lips twitched, this is a dog whose tail would not bend? Still a stupid dog.
It seemed that this dog did not want to hurt the kitten. Mo Tianliao watched the two of them playing with interest. Of course, the so-called ‘play’ was the big dog constantly trying to use his nose to nudge the kitten, and receiving scratches from all directions in return.
Finally, the dog was frustrated. He stepped back and gathered his strength to jump on the big stone, opening his mouth to bite the kitten.
“What are you doing!” Mo Tianliao picked up a stone and threw it towards the dog.
The stone infused with spiritual power precisely aimed for the dog’s head. Before the stone could hit him, the dog nimbly dodged out of the way. Startled by the stone flying towards him, the dog did not pay attention to his footing and slipped off the rock, four paws not able to stop his fall.
Mo Tianliao walked out and found yet another stone, his heart a little nervous. Even if it was a first-level spiritual beast, it was still stronger than him who was only a training disciple. If it really came down to a fight, he could only be bitten. No matter how intelligent spiritual beasts were, they were still beasts, it was difficult to change their beastly nature.
Sure enough, when the dog saw him touch the stone, he subconsciously retracted his head. He looked at the kitten reclining on the stone, looked at Mo Tianliao again, then whimpered lowly, lowered his head and ran away.
Mo Tianliao threw away the stone and ran to the creek, “Xiaozhao, are you okay?” He picked up the small furball and hugged him tightly to his chest, gently stroking the kitten’s neck that was bitten by the dog.
The white kitten looked up at him, lazily stretched his paws and gave him a slap. However, the kitten did not extend his claws, only the soft pad of his paw slammed onto Mo Tianliao’s face. Mo Tianliao grinned and kissed the kitten’s warm paw.
“Is that dog your friend?” Mo Tianliao was still wearing the black robes he wore to the banquet. While walking, he pulled out a black silk handkerchief embroidered with silver patterns from his sleeves and wiped away the dog’s saliva on the kitten’s fur.
The kitten turned to look at him, knowing that it was my friend, you still threw a stone?
“You can play with the dog, but don’t let it open its mouth and bite you. The dog’s mouth is too big and can’t control its strength, also, it’s not good to dirty your fur.” Mo Tianliao said solemnly, he was embarrassed to admit that he was jealous because of a dog.
On the way back, Mo Tianliao suddenly thought of a problem. Xiaozhao and that dog were both spiritual beasts, and they conspicuously played in the rear mountains, which meant that shizun definitely knew. Ordinary disciples were not allowed to enter the rear mountains, then, shizun might actually be protecting not only the spiritual forest, but more importantly protecting these spiritual beasts without a blood contract.
“There are many spiritual beasts in the sect, but I am not qualified to see them.” Su Heng, who came to do a report, smiled and said that it was only used to reward disciples who had accomplished great merits or had advanced to the Nascent Soul stage. If the rest of the disciples wished to obtain a spiritual beast, they had to find it themselves.
Mo Tianliao nodded in understanding, “Are there records of the spiritual beasts in the sect?”
“Naturally there is, but the records are in the hands of the three Cove masters. Ordinary people do not have access to it.” Su Heng replied.
Mo Tianliao waved his hand to let Su Heng leave and petted the kitten sleeping soundly in his arms. Shizun gave him the jade tablet and allowed him access to the rear mountains, was he not afraid of Mo Tianliao forcing either spiritual beast to sign a blood contract with him? Or… he remembered the rule that the direct disciples could enter and exit at will. Did that mean that direct disciples could directly obtain a spiritual beast if they wished?
He decided to clarify the matter with shizun another day. If it was true, he would tell shizun that he wanted this kitten. Mo Tianliao snapped his fingers and lit a candle, his top priority now was to advance his cultivation to become stronger, let alone be surpassed by a wild dog.
Qingtong Zhenren went into seclusion yet again. Mo Tianliao went to request an audience a few times, but did not manage to see him. He could only diligently cut trees in the rear mountains.
Spiritual energy from the grass and trees could be absorbed. At the end of each chapter of the cultivation manual, he was asked to grill all kinds of food. Mo Tianliao grilled until he was bored, and began to change his grilling style. While grilling, he also practiced controlling woodfire. In his past life he was a fire attribute and was familiar with the use of fire power. Presently, there was a special heavenly fire, of course he had to use it well.
Three months later, Mo Tianliao looked at the blue flame that was in the shape of a dragon in his palm, and slightly curled his lips.
The fire dragon resembled a sculpture, its body floated up and down in the breeze. It went along with the changes in Mo Tianliao’s spiritual aura and actively shook its head and flicked its tail. The fire dragon swam to the kitten’s side, and the kitten that was licking his paw was shocked still and tilted his head to stare at the strange apparition.
“Now I have only this much woodfire, and can only make this size.” Mo Tianliao went over and watched the fire dragon together with the kitten. The fire dragon began to dissipate after burning for a while, and disappeared.
The kitten yawned and lay down to sleep.
Mo Tianliao fumbled and experimented with the usage of woodfire for sculpting for a month.
At first, only a few fire balls could be made, later, he practiced controlling the woodfire day and night, and could finally change the shape of the flame, and his cultivation level, due to continuously cutting trees and burning fires, had already refined his qi to the sixth stage.
With a divine tree as his body, Mo Tianliao did not have to forge spiritual veins, as long as he accumulated wood spiritual energy, the spiritual power could be used to establish his foundation. Mo Tianliao roughly estimated that in about less than a year, he would complete the Foundation Establishment stage.
In his previous life, Mo Tianliao cultivated from twelve years old until he was twenty-eight, only then did he finish building his foundation, his abilities could be considered not bad. Now, only needing one year to establish his foundation, it was simply unbelievable! Mo Tianliao’s feelings were a bit complicated. He lifted his hands to carry the kitten that was dozing off, and walked down the mountain.
Having stuck to the kitten for three months, Mo Tianliao discovered a problem. This tiny furball is extremely lethargic and does not play for more than two shichen a day. An ordinary cat would normally sleep for seven shichen, but a spiritual beast slept for ten shichen, this was obviously not normal!
Three hundred years ago, Mo Xiaozhao could play with him all day without showing any exhaustion, but now he was very delicate, after playing for a while he would start yawning. Mo Tianliao wanted to find a physician to look at Xiaozhao, but to see a physician was very expensive.
Mo Tianliao poured out all the lingshi in the storage bracelet and counted a total of six mid-grade lingshi. Direct disciples received three mid-grade lingshi every month, equivalent to thirty pieces of the low-grade lingshi. Compared to the ten low-grade lingshi given to the ordinary disciples, this was already very generous treatment.
To advance to the fifth stage of qi refining, one piece of mid-grade lingshi needed to be used, while advancing to the sixth stage required two. And to ask a physician to treat a spiritual beast required at least thirty pieces of mid-grade lingshi.
Mo Tianliao stroked the furball that was sleeping soundly in his arms. Holding the kitten, he kept the lingshi and walked towards Red Flame Heaven.
There were forges in Red Flame Heaven, he had to refine spiritual weapons to earn some money.
another chapter is up! the prev chapter was hard as the author really loves to describe things a lot…orz chapters are supposed to be up every sunday as for now but if i complete translating the chapter before sunday i’ll release it earlier 🙂