This little green bud, which condensed Mo Tianliao’s divine soul, was almost bare, with only two leaves, it emitted a faint green light. The kitten lifted its paws and patted the emerald leaves, they closed slightly to cover the tender and fluffy paws.
The kitten stuck out its tongue and licked a fragile leaf. Qingtong could feel that this was Mo Tianliao’s soul. Although he wanted to scratch, he was afraid to break it, so he could only touch it gingerly.
The divine soul turned bud was very fragile, but it was also incredibly sensitive. When the small barbed tongue licked it, it was just like being scratched directly on his soul, it made Mo Tianliao tremble ceaselessly. He had intended to say a few words to his cat, but with his soul like this he could not speak.
Taishi, having discovered an opportunity to atone for its crimes, abandoned the Wenyu fruit and turned itself into a tortoiseshell-coloured rope, it coiled around the green bud, opened a small mouth, and started speaking its Master’s thoughts.
“Fuck off!” Taishi screeched.
The kitten paused and silently flashed his claws.
“Taishi, this excellency was speaking to you!” Taishi faithfully said every word in his Master’s mind, it looked just like a snake who had lost its marbles. Once it finished voicing Mo Tianliao’s thoughts, it turned its head and said, “Master, don’t say that. You can’t talk without me.”
Qingtong sat down, licking his paws leisurely and watching the snake talk to itself.
“Dear Master, I’m not speaking, you’re speaking.”
“Baby, don’t worry. Once that Half-Immortal goes away, we will leave the forest.”
“Meow…” Qingtong walked over, removed the turd-like divine weapon, nestled beside the green bud, curled up into a ball and yawned lazily.
The trunk fell into silence, Mo Tianliao was not in a hurry to talk, quietly enjoying the feeling of his soul being wrapped in a cat fur cocoon, it was just like lying naked on a huge furry belly, sublime enough to bring tears to the eyes.
“I clearly saw a shadow flash past. How did it vanish?” The voice of the Liuyun Sect disciple came from outside the tree.
“Follow that path, that person must have used a special tool to aid in their escape!” Another voice came right after, it seemed somewhat familiar.
“Peak Master Ding. Why are you here, sir?”
So it was a Liuyun Sect Peak Master. Just like Woyun Sect with its Abode and Peak Masters, most of them were put in charge because of their outstanding ability or advanced cultivation. Since this guy was surnamed Ding, he should be Ding Zijin’s relative, right?
After waiting for a while, the footsteps faded away. The man who had spoken before came back to meet and discuss with another searching disciple.
“The Elder is using his divine sense to check, and Peak Master Ding is using a special tool that can detect living beings. They don’t need us.”
The two disciples decided to shirk their duties and sat down beside Mo Tianliao, one of them leaned against his trunk and said with a yawn, “It has been many years since someone managed to steal some Wenyu fruit. I heard that the array was one of Lord Duantian’s secret arrays. How could it be defeated so easily?”
The kitten used his hind paws to press on his ears and glanced at the green shoot with disdain.
Mo Tianliao waved his leaves. How could he have made such a useless and holey array? It only had attack and alarm functions, touching one of the countless threads made of spiritual force would activate an attack, and inform the Elders. It seemed simple and crude to Mo Tianliao, lacking any sort of artistry. If he were the one to set up the tree protection array, he would superimpose a trap array on the attack array. More importantly, he would set up an illusion array around the tree that would make anyone who touched it lose their bearings, it would be impossible not to touch it when stealing.
When he had been deciphering this array, Mo Tianliao had paid special attention to whether it contained an illusion array. It turned out that it did not, turning the array from an iron cage into a bamboo fence, absolutely useless in the face of him.
“Perhaps this person is also Lord Duantian’s successor?” The other person answered, and then both of them laughed. How many successors could Lord Duantian have? Even Peak Master Ding’s claim to the title was not unquestioned.
The two people then started to talk about this Peak Master Ding. The tree and the cat could not speak, but they listened to the information with their ears perked up.
This Peak Master Ding name was Ding Ziyu, and he was a cultivator in the middle stages of the Nascent Soul period. He had previously made a great contribution by presenting the Sect Leader with a special tool that could find Demonic Beasts, and he had also set up various protective arrays for the sect. The only reason why Liuyun Sect, which had once not set much stock in arrays, had barriers and arrays everywhere, was because this Ding Ziyu had placed them all himself. A few days ago, the Sect Leader had even promoted him to Peak Master, an honour which not even his brother Ding Zijin had.
Liuyun Sect’s mountains were not as many as the Heavenly Lands of Woyun Sect, having less than ten important peaks, most of which were overseen by Half-Immortal Elders. Only a few Peak Masters were Nascent Soul cultivators, and only those who had outstanding ability or had made special contributions could receive this honour. One could imagine what kind of high esteem the Liuyun Sect held for Ding Ziyu; it was no wonder that Ding Zijin was so anxious to obtain the Starfall Stone.
“Peak Master Ding is Lord Duantian’s successor after all!” When the two gossipers spoke the name Duantian, they used a very respectful tone.
“Ah, who would have expected that someone sent as a plaything would actually receive Lord Duantian’s favour and mantle.”
“Except,” the other person started, looked around and then continued, whispering, “Say, did Lord Duantian even talk to Ding Ziyu…”
“Haha, don’t say that, otherwise why teach him so many skills and even let him know about the Mo Palace array?”
“Beauties will always lead to trouble, huh…”
The two realized that quite some time had passed and did not dare to stay longer, they patted their butts and left, pretending to search once more.
Inside the tree trunk, the snow-coloured kitten had already raised his claws, moving them towards the tender green bud.
Mo Tianliao hurriedly raised his two leaves, begging for mercy. He swore from the bottom of his heart that he did not even remember who Ding Ziyu was! Just when did he pass on his mantle to him? Just when did he have an affair with him? Lord Duantian himself has no idea, okay?
After waiting for an hour, the people of Liuyun Sect left to begin searching other places, but Mo Tianliao could still sense the presence of that Half-Immortal Elder, his powerful divine sense swept over him again and again. Whenever the divine sense was not on him, he lifted his roots and moved towards the edge of the forest bit by bit. Tonight, the moon was bright and the stars were few, and a bald tree moved slowly under the moonlight.
“Shameless thief, just where are you hiding?” The Liuyun Sect Elder hovered angrily in mid-air, using his tremendously powerful divine sense to sweep every inch, investigating all the living creatures in the forest one by one. He found nothing. Could they have gone underground?
The Elder exasperatedly left to report to the Sect Leader, they must check all the guests who were not in their own room. Mo Tianliao immediately changed back and took out a flying sword to escape, yet he could not hold back a pained groan. He was still injured; he would not be able to fly quickly.
“Hm?” The Elder who had not yet gone far seemed to feel something and turned back quickly. Mo Tianliao was shocked and forced to use his spiritual force to move. Blood rose in his throat, but he choked it down, under no circumstances could he leave a bloodstain behind.
Qingtong snorted, grabbed him by the collar, turned into a beam of light, and quickly went back to their courtyard. His speed was so fast that the returning Elder did not catch the slightest trace of them.
“Haaahh…” Back in the courtyard, Mo Tianliao breathed a sigh of relief. He could no longer stay standing; he spit out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.
Qingtong grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back to bed. He then grabbed a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth.
Mo Tianliao swallowed the pills and blinked. “Baby, what did you give me?”
“I don’t know.” Qingtong looked at him with a pair of translucent Liuli eyes.
“…” Mo Tianliao gave up, anyway, there would be no poison among the pills Tianlang gave Qingtong. He leaned close and kissed those beautiful eyes. “Your eyes have changed colour.”
“Hm?” Qingtong blinked and those Liuli eyes instantly became inky again.
Today was the first day of the Three Sects Conference, there would be grand ceremonies, they had all intended to participate in them. Fortunately, his injury was not serious, after Mo Tianliao took a moment to regulate his breathing, his chest no longer hurt and he could walk, so he got up.
Taishi was still in the shape of a wicker strainer wrapped around a Wenyu fruit, it followed slowly.
Mo Tianliao looked back at it without saying a word.
Taishi shivered, then ingratiatingly handed the Wenyu fruit to Mo Tianliao. Once it was picked up, it turned into a big mouth and said, “What? Master, last night was not my fault. I was just trying to steal more fruits for our kitty! The more Wenyu fruits he eats, the more stable his spirit will be– Ow! Hot, hot, hot! ”
The big mouth was set on fire, and immediately flew in circles around the house, it had barely put out the fire when he saw that his master wanted to burn it again. It quickly hid beside Qingtong, but before it could open its mouth, it was frozen into an ice lump.
Ding Ziyu: I am Lord Duantian’s successor
Ding Zijing: Bah, what you are is Lord Duantian’s mistress
Xiaozhao: Speak. What is the relationship between the two of you?
Carpenter: Who the hell is that?
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
The word array doesn’t even look like a real word any more.
This chapter had a really creative way to show intimacy without risking censorship