“Awoo?” The puppy stiffened, then its tail started wagging even more joyfully, he stuck out his tongue to lick the kitten.
Mo Tianliao’s face suddenly darkened, he grabbed the lounging kitten and held him in his arms. Even if this young wolf looked like a cub, as a human he was already old enough to marry! Even if his own cat was the one to lick him first, this young wolf had no right to lick him back!
The young wolf licked the empty air and ended up with a mouthful of tiger fur.
The big tiger turned his head and looked at the little furball lying on his body, then he bent his head, leaned over and licked him back. The huge tongue ran over the young wolf’s small head and promptly flattened the erect ears backwards, it looked very comical.
The puppy shook his head unhappily, his ears were wet with tiger drool. He glared fiercely at the tiger who had dared to lick him. Then his tiny body suddenly jumped up and he bit the tiger’s round ear.
“Growl!” The big tiger let out a cry, but his body did not move, he just shook his head in an attempt to free his ear.
Mo Xiong looked at the fun then reached out a hand to slap the big tiger on the ass and said with a friendly smile, “Meng Hu, long time no see, you still haven’t greeted me.”
“Roaaar!” The tiger got angry and abruptly jumped up. With the wolf puppy still hanging from his ear, he quickly threw Mo Xiong to the ground.
“Want to fight?” Mo Xiong bared his teeth, turned into a huge black bear and lifted the big tiger with his shoulder.
The tiger extended his arms and clawed at the big black bear’s tail with one paw.
The puppy was sent flying but Yan Lie agilely caught him, he took him away from the pair of quarrelsome meatheads and back to the small pavilion.
Qingtong jumped out of Mo Tianliao’s arms, turned into a human and returned to the rocking chair, a wave of his hand signalling to Yan Lie that he could retire if there was nothing further to discuss.
Shuang Ren, who had gone to fetch water, heard the commotion and came over carrying the kettle. The little fox who had been sitting on the ground at a loss saw her brother coming and immediately jumped onto Shuang Ren’s shoulder.
“Shishu has another fox?” Yan Lie looked at the fox on Shuang Ren’s shoulder and frowned slightly. At first, Shuang Ren had been taken in by Qingtong mainly because he could relieve his headache. Actually, given Shuang Ren’s abilities and species, it was a little inappropriate for him to be a direct disciple of Qingtong’s, and now here was another fox…
Mo Tianliao took the kettle from Shuang Ren’s hand, poured the mountain spring water into the teapot, then rubbed his fingers to light the charcoal under it. “Master’s soul is much better.” After saying that, he winked at Yan Lie.
Yan Lie understood him clearly and said, “How did shidi‘s cultivation suddenly reach the Nascent Soul stage? Did you perhaps have a fortuitous encounter recently?”
Mo Tianliao poured the brewed tea into the cold jade cup, tested the temperature, and handed it to Qingtong. “I see that I can’t hide it from shixiong, but my cultivation is not important. What’s important is that I’ve learnt a kind of skill recently which can heal Master’s soul,” he said, then he looked at Master, who was sipping tea, with laughter in his eyes.
“Cough–” Qingtong promptly choked on his tea.
Mo Tianliao hurried to pat him on the back. The puppy jumped down from Yan Lie’s arms and grabbed Qingtong’s knee to look at him curiously.
“I see.” Yan Lie smiled and looked at the two foxes standing to one side. “Then I’ll accept them as my disciples as is customary.”
Nowadays, among the Demonic Beasts of the cultivation world there were many foxes, Woyun Sect was therefore full of them and the Sect Leader always threw them into Yan Lie’s care. Therefore, when people from Woyun Sect saw foxes, they naturally thought that they were Yan Lie’s disciples.
Was this really fine? Shuang Ren paused. He was originally a direct disciple of an Abode Master but now he was being handed over to Yan Lie. Wasn’t he being demoted by one generation for no reason? Although it had always been Yan Lie who taught him spells, was it really necessary to call him Master?
Qingtong put down the cup, stretched out his hand and poked at the puppy’s head, his finger was promptly slurped.
Mo Tianliao pulled his hand over and wiped it carefully with a wet cloth towel. “Foxes can’t learn anything from Master. Under my care, Master’s body will soon get better. Let them follow Yan Lie.”
Qingtong looked at him then hummed noncommittally.
Exchanging a look of silent communication with Yan Lie, Mo Tianliao handed over the fox siblings, full of satisfaction. From the very beginning, Mo Tianliao had considered Shuang Ren an annoyance, he was always interrupting his and Master’s private time, and he had even brought back another nuisance with him. When they were at the Crystal Palace, he had wondered how to get rid of them.
“With your abilities, you can stay in Woqing Abode, but your sister can’t, she must come with me. You can also come if it would set your mind at ease,” Yan Lie said to the hesitant Shuang Ren.
Shuang Ren was stunned, this was the same as what Master had said before at the Crystal Palace. Yan Lie’s Abode was full of foxes, they were led by Chi Feng and his siblings, he had seen it before. His little sister was ignorant of the world, so he was extremely uneasy with letting her go by herself. He pursed his lips, pulled up his clothes, and knelt in front of Qingtong.
It was Master who had saved him from that den of monsters, healed him and brought him back to the sect. Now that it was time to say goodbye, he was so full of words of gratitude, that he did not know where to start.
“Go,” without waiting for Shuang Ren to speak any sentimental words of farewell, Qingtong waved to indicate that he could go. “It’s not like this Master is expelling you, when you see this Excellency in the future just remember to call me shishuzu.”
“…” The words that Shuang Ren had not managed to say were suddenly stuck in his throat. It was still the same. After all, he still belonged to the sect. Qingtong only needed to summon him and he would always come to be his obedient pillow.
Yan Lie led the two foxes away, easily grabbing Mo Xiong who was still in the middle of fighting.
The big black bear pressing down the tiger was lifted by the seemingly delicate Yan Lie and dragged away without a fuss. Although the bear kept swinging his four paws around. “Growl. I’m not done yet.”
“Don’t quarrel with shishu.” Yan Lie glared at him in warning and turned around to call Lang Zi.
“Awoo…” The little wolf cub held Qingtong’s leg and refused to go.
Qingtong reached out and squeezed the wolf’s ear, then he waved at Yan Lie, indicating that he might as well let the puppy play there for a while.
Yan Lie smiled and turned to leave.
Mo Tianliao appreciated Yan Lie’s way of doing things; it was not easy to satisfy everyone. Let’s just say that this boy was very good at understanding people’s feelings. Looking at Woqing Abode which felt a lot quieter, Mo Tianliao smirked proudly.
“Did you collude with Yan Lie?” Qingtong held the puppy to his lap and grabbed a fruit to feed him.
“No.” Mo Tianliao touched his nose guiltily. He had just given Yan Lie a small fire-attribute spiritual weapon and mentioned the foxes in passing.
The big tiger who had gotten dirty during the fight shook his fur and lay back down in his spot. The puppy immediately bit his long tail.
In no time at all Yan Lie had gone and come back holding a screaming leopard in his hands.
“I took shishu‘s disciples, I should make up for it,” Yan Lie said with a smile.
The little leopard with beautiful stripes was the one Mo Tianliao had saved at the foot of the mountain. At the time, the little guy had been so thin and weak that it almost seemed like he would not be able to survive. Now he had grown plump and his fur was shiny.
This was the only option for Yan Lie. Before, Qingtong had thrown the leopard to the Sect Leader, who had thrown it to him in turn, but having to raise a leopard in a fox den was really making everyone’s lives difficult. Although he was still young, he instinctually pounced every time he saw a fox. They had already lost count of how many times Chi Feng had been dragged by the fur of his tail. Not to mention the fact that if they kept him, he would end up growing up in that environment, they could not just have him follow a group of foxes while searching for fruit and digging for bugs every day, could they?
Since Qingtong’s health was getting better, he would have no problem dealing with a cub’s rambunctiousness, so handing him over to be raised at Woqing Abode would be for the best.
“Growl!” The little leopard noticed the big tiger on the ground at a glance and struggled to get closer.
Qingtong narrowed his eyes and waved the little leopard over.
“Mrow…” The little leopard sat on Qingtong’s leg, shrank his neck, blinked his big limpid eyes and slowly drew near to sniff him. He did not smell like a fox, but like warm sunshine, faintly mixed with a refreshing tree scent; the little leopard liked it very much. He plunged into Qingtong’s arms and rubbed his head against him hard.
The wolf protested, he bit the little leopard’s tail and dragged him backwards. He hadn’t let shishu hug him yet. How could this boy take the lead?
“All right,” Qingtong picked up the little leopard and poked at his chubby belly. “I’ll call you ‘Little Fatty’.”
Unedited, please point out any mistakes