Mo Tianliao carried the kitten out of the library and frowned slightly. It seemed that many first-generation disciples, who could sense Demonic Beasts, had met Mo Xiaozhao and didn’t think anything was wrong about him running around with a Demonic Beast. Indeed, as expected of a large sect with deep pockets, Demonic Beasts were seen as a common thing.
Looking down at the little furball leisurely playing with its paws, Mo Tianliao smiled. At least Xiaozhao had had a good life in the sect over the years; he had not been put into a cage or forced into a blood pact. Presumably, cultivators preferred ferocious Demonic Beasts so they could have a helper when fighting against enemies. If they saw Lord Kitty…
Hua Qing’s workroom was in Woxuan Abode. Mo Tianliao was granted access with his disciple token.
Once he crossed the rainbow bridge, he heard a splash of water. Entering the abode, he saw a blue lake. There was a zigzag bridge made of black crystal crisscrossing the lake in all directions. In the middle of the lake was the main hall of Woxuan Abode, where Xuanji Zhenren lived all year round.
Mo Tianliao tucked the cat into his arms and grabbed a second-generation disciple for questioning.
“Second shishu‘s workroom is over there. This disciple will take you.” The second-generation disciple took Mo Tianliao to a small valley in the east.
Traveling by flying sword was not permitted in the abodes, and walking on the twisting and turning zigzag bridge over the lake was disorientating.
A huge turtle shell appeared on the lake. Mo Tianliao turned to look at it, but the turtle shell had sunk down and disappeared.
“Does this lake house Demonic Beasts?” Mo Tianliao was a little surprised, Demonic Beasts appearing just like that in front of second-generation disciples and ordinary inner disciples?
“No, just this one.” The second generation-disciple gave an embarrassed smile. “It belongs to Xuanji Zhenren. It doesn’t like seeing people, so it only shows half of its shell. Don’t worry about it.”
Across the lake, a clear stream flowed out of the mountain, with a row of round stones in the middle. The second-generation disciple said that one entered the valley by following this stone path. The disciple could only accompany him up to this point.
The valley was very quiet, and surprisingly, there were no spiritual grasses or trees, just flowers everywhere, creating a gorgeous riot of colour. It was almost winter, yet the valley was spring warm, everything in bloom.
At the end of the valley, there was a thatched hut, and smoke curled up from the chimney from time to time. At first glance, it looked as if it belonged to a mortal farming family.
There was a humming sound; an invisible barrier blocked Mo Tianliao’s way.
A colourful figure suddenly emerged from the hut, stepping over the flowers like walking on the surface of water, and instantly floated to Mo Tianliao. “Oh! Mo shidi, what brings you here?” He lifted the barrier and let Mo Tianliao in.
“Shixiong, thank you for receiving me.” Once inside the barrier, he was surrounded by the pleasant fragrance of flowers.
“Achoo~” the kitten in his arms sneezed, gripped his clothes, and poked its head out. It looked around and sneezed again.
Hua Qing, who was smiling brightly, turned pale when he saw the white kitten. He suddenly stiffened, “Y-you are welcome.”
He was not making pills today, just processing some ingredients in the furnace. He asked Mo Tianliao to sit down, took out the contents of the furnace, and put them on the table to mash. He extracted some sweet-smelling black juice from the heated mass.
Mo Tianliao frowned slightly. Although he was not very good at alchemy, that juice was obviously poisonous and did not seem to be useful for making pills.
“Do you know what this is?” Hua Qing poured out a few pills and soaked them in the black juice. The red pills were immediately dyed dark blue. “It’s funny, after eating them, you will grow green hair!”
Grow green hair… Grow green hair!
“This is the birthday present I am going to give to da-shixiong.” Hua Qing was very proud. He packed the pills into three bottles and stuffed a bottle into Mo Tianliao’s hands. “Since you came to visit me, you also get a share. This is for you.”
Mo Tianliao pursed his lips. Why would he want a green hair pill?
“Meow!” The kitten jumped from Mo Tianliao’s arms and suddenly clung onto Hua Qing’s colourful clothes.
Hua Qing immediately jumped up twice. “Shi-shidi ah, gra- grab the cat, quickly.”
Mo Tianliao raised his eyebrows, shixiong was afraid of cats? “Shixiong, I want to visit your spiritual herbs garden.”
“Spi-spiritual herbs garden, you’ll need to go find Bai Luo. I only have pills here… ah, take it quickly!” Hua Qing was almost crying.
It turned out that Hua Qing was different from other alchemists. Regardless of who the alchemist was, all the spiritual herbs and trees in the sect were under the jurisdiction of Sect Leader’s disciple Bai Luo. One needed to go to him to get whatever spiritual herbs were needed for alchemy.
Mo Tianliao was a little surprised. He took the kitten into his arms and smoothed its fur. Just then, the barrier in the valley buzzed again, and Hua Qing fled to open the door.
When the outsider came, Mo Tianliao hid the cat again. The visitor was not a stranger. It was the teenager with heavenly spiritual root, named Cheng Xi, who came into the sect at the same time as Mo Tianliao and was now Xuanji Zhenren’s disciple.
“Master asked me to pick up something.” Cheng Xi smiled cutely and followed behind Hua Qing, sweetly calling “second shixiong” every two steps. When he looked up and saw Mo Tianliao standing in the hut, his face suddenly changed, and he raised his chin slightly.
It was that loathsome dual root trash! Cheng Xi curled his lips and ignored Mo Tianliao.
Mo Tianliao naturally saw the young man’s disdain and smiled to himself. He casually lifted the small bottle in his hand and said, “Hua shixiong, thank you for the pills. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Hua Qing wanted him to leave quickly, so he did not detain him.
When Cheng Xi saw the celadon vial, he secretly clenched his fist, raised his hand, and tugged at Hua Qing’s sleeve. “Shixiong, you are giving pills to people from other abodes. Why don’t you give some to me?” He had a supercilious look behind Hua Qing’s back.
Hua Qing turned around with a smile, picked up a bottle, and handed it to him. “If you want them, here you go.”
Cheng Xi was glad; it must be noted that Hua Qing was renowned across the righteous path as “Master Alchemist Zhi Hua”. The pills refined by him were worth their weight in gold. They were not ordinary pills. It didn’t matter if they were small trinkets refined on a whim, they would be extremely precious to him during his Qi Refining period.
As a result, Cheng Xi happily left with what his Master had wanted and the precious pills given by shixiong.
After a busy day, he ended up without results, and the sun was already setting. Mo Tianliao decided to return to Qingning Palace first and go to Bai Luo tomorrow to get the spiritual grass. Not only did he not see Master, but the cat in his arms jumped down and ran away. He would not be sleeping with him tonight. He went back to his courtyard in a bitter mood.
As soon as he walked to the front of his courtyard, he saw several disciples from the administrative hall waiting for him. Mo Tianliao frowned, “Your Master has come back; you don’t have to come to me anymore.”
Several disciples looked at each other, then awkwardly said, “Reporting to shishu, Master said that you are better than him, and that he’ll leave it to you from now on.”
Today, Meng Hu learned that over the past few months, his little shidi had managed the common affairs in the whole abode in an orderly way, no worse than that Yan Lie. He was almost mad with joy. Finally, he didn’t have to lose his hair every day over trivial matters. He said that he would continue to leave this important task to shidi.
Meng Hu, who now had ample free time, went to Qingning Palace to find Master.
The inner hall of Qingning Palace was brightly lit, light reflecting off the furniture and decorations. Thick, plain cushions covered the room. The snow-white kitten lay lazily in the middle, almost merging with the cushions. If Meng Hu hadn’t had good eyesight, he wouldn’t have found it.
Taking off his shoes, he walked over in a few steps and threw himself in front of the kitten, “Disciple pays his respects to Master.”
The kitten lazily opened its eyes and yawned.
Meng Hu scratched his head and rolled over. There was a flash of yellow light and a colourful, half zhang long tiger appeared on the cushion. “Master, let’s roll around!”
Ignoring the foolish proposal, Mo Xiaozhao happily got up, stretched his limbs, and jumped onto the big tiger’s head. It was getting a little cold — better sleep on a tiger skin rug to keep warm.
“Master, shidi does not seem to be a beast cultivator, but he is not human either.” The big tiger didn’t dare touch the little furball on its head and lay down properly.
“Mmm,” Qingtong shook his tail.
“He is quite good at managing everyday affairs, unlike a young boy who has just started.” The big tiger spread out its four limbs, looking like a tiger skin rug from a distance.
He spoke for a while but did not get a response. Meng Hu twitched his ears, felt the even breathing on his head, and wisely shut up. Like this, he lay down for Master and became a rug for the night.
The next day, Mo Tianliao did not find the kitten, so he went to see Bai Luo alone.
Most of the spiritual grasses in the sect were planted in the “Hundred Herbs Paradise”. New disciples with wood attributes would be sent here to take care of the spiritual plants.
The “Hundred Herbs Paradise” was divided into several areas. Outside were some common spiritual herbs, which could be taken care of by ordinary disciples. Inside were rare spiritual herbs and spiritual trees, which must be taken care of by special inner disciples. As for the medicine garden on the innermost layer, only first-generation direct disciples and the three Abode Masters could enter.
In the medicine garden, there were thousand-year-old trees that blocked out the sun and countless exotic flowers and herbs. Since they were full of spiritual power, they emitted light from time to time. It was really beautiful.
Dressed in imposing white, Bai Luo was crouching on the flower path, looking at a spiritual grass and pulling a long face. The spiritual grass was shaped like a sword, with straight branches, but… no leaves. To be exact, only the stems were left. It wasn’t clear what had eaten all the leaves, but there were none left.
“Ha ha ha, are you in trouble again?” An obnoxious voice sounded from behind. Looking back, he saw Zi Mo smiling with a face full of schadenfreude. When he saw Bai Luo turn around, he jumped over and shook his head while clicking his tongue. “How many times have I told you? Be careful with your greediness and don’t eat all the leaves. Or else how can you continue to live?”
Bai Luo just stared at him; he didn’t speak.
“Come on, have a chicken drumstick,” said Zi Mo, pulling out a roast chicken from his sleeve. “This is Master’s favourite swordleaf grass. If it’s destroyed, Master will simply eat you in one bite! Come on, bunny darling, eat some meaty meat. Eat well before you go.”
Bai Luo clenched his fist, unable to bear it. He slapped the chicken drumstick away, lifted Zi Mo, and threw him over his shoulder and onto the ground. He raised his hand to punch him.
“Bai Luo, I am your shixiong!”
When Mo Tianliao came , he saw his two shixiongs, one on top of the other. The one below was struggling and panting.
The two men, who were rolling around excitedly, felt that someone had come in and turned to look. The one on top held the other down by the wrists and the one on the bottom pressed against the other’s chest. They turned back stiffly.
“Never mind, I’ll come back another day.” Mo Tianliao turned around and went back the way he came.
Carpenter: I saw nothing, excuse me
Bai Luo & Zi Mo: Chotto matte, it’s not what it looks like