Chapter 30:
Indolent Disciple
THE TEMPERATURE of the body in his arms was a little low. Mo Tianliao pulled the thin quilt over and wrapped it around them both. Enveloped in familiar warmth, the unconscious man instinctively relaxed.
It was still daylight, and sunlight filtered through the thin curtains, illuminating that exquisite face. Mo Tianliao traced Qingtong’s features with a finger. Even though he’d guessed the truth, he still found it hard to get his head around. This silly little kitten who couldn’t even cast a high-level spell three hundred years ago was now at the soul transformation stage, and he’d achieved all this with his divine soul damaged.
Spirit beasts theoretically advanced slower than humans; they lacked spiritual intelligence at level one and couldn’t learn any cultivation techniques, so all they could do was slowly absorb the spiritual energy of the natural world. Low-level spirit beasts weren’t much use to high-level cultivators, either. In fact, some cultivators were only interested in high-level spirit beasts at the nascent soul stage or above and skipped out on low-level ones altogether.
Mo Tianliao’s eyes darkened as he slowly twirled a lock of soft, snow-white hair around his finger. The demon lords he knew of in his previous life had high-level spirit beasts who could already transform into human form. Each of them was strikingly beautiful, and their hair matched the color of their fur. His suspicions had been raised when he saw Qingtong’s black hair turn white.
“My Pawpaw doesn’t like mutton, and he loves playing with glass beads…” Mo Tianliao said softly, his heart aching dully. He didn’t know how Pawpaw had learned the secret art of soul-splitting, or how he’d managed to envelop him with his divine soul at the moment of his death, but a spirit beast’s powerful divine soul was the only thing that could have protected and preserved his own divine soul for three hundred years.
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AFTER MENGHU WAS DONE dealing with the mess outside, he hurried back, only to find himself locked out of the inner chamber.
There were protective barriers set up in the inner chamber. Qingtong had passed out too quickly to activate them the previous two times, which was why Mo Tianliao had been able to slip in. But since he was inside now, he didn’t plan to let any other person—or tiger—in to disturb his master’s rest.
Menghu scratched away on the door for a while before leaving reluctantly to look for his own junior. He couldn’t find him anywhere, though. He scratched his head. Where in the world did that guy go?
The sun set and rose again. Qingtong slept for a day and a night.
The morning sunlight shone through the sheer curtains. Long lashes fluttered, and Qingtong slowly opened his eyes, his ink-black irises already transformed into breathtakingly beautiful orbs the color of glass that appeared clear and bright in the morning light.
Mo Tianliao said nothing, only watched him with a smile.
Still groggy from waking up, Qingtong wasn’t surprised to see Mo Tianliao. Out of habit, he leaned in and nuzzled his face against his chest. Mo Tianliao’s breath caught for an instant. He felt as though a feather had brushed across his heart, tickling it and his nose.
Qingtong stiffened, realizing the sensation was off—he was in his human form! Before Mo Tianliao could speak, Qingtong kicked him off the bed.
“Insolent disciple! What are you doing here?!” Qingtong propped himself up on his elbow and glared at the man on the floor. Damn, he’d even taken off his outer robe—he was holding his master while sleeping in just his inner garment. Outrageous!
Mo Tianliao got up from the cushions and boldly peered over the edge of the bed. “You fainted yesterday, so I—”
Stunned, Qingtong looked down at the snowy hair lying loose on his chest. Dizzy with panic, he felt his arms go weak. Just as he was about to collapse, Mo Tianliao quickly climbed back onto the bed and caught him in his arms. He gently massaged Qingtong’s temples.
Qingtong was getting a pounding headache even as he reeled from the dizzy spell. He wanted to hit Mo Tianliao, but he couldn’t muster up the strength. Eyes squeezed shut and teeth gritted, he hissed, “Insolent disciple! What are you doing?!”
“You are my cat, to begin with. Why shouldn’t I hold you for a while?” Mo Tianliao replied matter-of-factly, showing no intention of letting go.
Qingtong froze, then slowly opened his eyes. Those light-colored glass orbs reflected Mo Tianliao’s gentle, smiling face, the same expression he always wore when he was looking at Pawpaw.
Mo Tianliao channeled his fire energy to his fingers and pressed them gently against the smooth skin of Qingtong’s forehead, alleviating his headache. “The power that protected my divine soul all those years was you, right?” He sighed. “Silly cat…”
Cold eyes lowered as a fair, translucent hand raised—and the neatly trimmed nails became claws as Qingtong smacked Mo Tianliao in the face. Insolent disciple! Where are you touching?
Mo Tianliao didn’t even get a chance to explain before he was thrown out of Qingning Palace for “taking liberties with his master.”
His master refused to see him for days. Denied entry, he felt a bit helpless.
He went to the Blessed Sanctuary of Ten Thousand Scrolls and searched through all the jade slips; he even searched the floor that was reserved for soul transformation cultivators. But he never found a way to cure Qingtong. Cultivators couldn’t live long if their divine soul was damaged, but the records on spirit beasts were limited. After all, no spirit beast would split their own divine soul for no reason.
Mo Tianliao set down the jade slip and went to pay the sect leader a visit, hoping to get some information out of him. His senior had told him that the sect leader had been providing Qingtong with all sorts of rare treasures for years, so he must have known about Qingtong’s damaged soul, which meant he’d know more about the extent of the damage.
But when he arrived at Wotian Sanctum, he was informed that the sect leader wasn’t in. Instead he made his way to Woxuan Sanctum.
These three were fellow disciples. Mo Tianliao didn’t know how they’d come to be fellow disciples with Pawpaw, a cat, but they’d been together for so many years and they tolerated his bad temper, so Mo Tianliao was sure they must be decent people.
Over at Woxuan Sanctum, Xuanji-zhenren sat on the principal seat in his palace on the lake and listened expressionlessly as Yuanhai made his report in his slow drawl.
“So, the sect leader wants the various sanctums to ferret out the spy. I thought about it, and I think the most suspicious members in our realm are those first-generation common disciples.” Yuanhai handed his master a list of names.
Everyone on Taixuan coveted spirit beasts. This wasn’t a good thing from the spirit beasts’ perspective, and Woyun Sect was the only place that could protect them. Many spirit cultivators seeking discipleship had already evolved into human forms, and it was sometimes hard to discern their original forms. The sect leader would send these people to Xuanji for observation. If they were found to be human, they would be treated as common disciples.
As for why they weren’t sent to Qingtong…
Over at Woqing Sanctum, in Qingning Palace, a gray-and-white wolf ran around a small cat. The cat was ignoring him, though, so he crouched down, raised his hindquarters, and inched across the soft cushions, nudging the little furball with his large nose. Quite predictably, he received a swipe from the cat’s claws.
“Yow!” The wolf jumped and covered his nose. “Qingtong, can’t you show your shixiong some basic respect?”
The white cat lifted an eyelid to glance at him. “Dumb dog.”
“Urgh!” The wolf finally lost his temper and bared his teeth. “I’ll give you one more chance. Acknowledge that I’m a wolf, or else—” His lips curled back to reveal two rows of glinting, snow-white fangs.
Pawpaw sat up and flicked his tail.
“Calm down! Sect Leader!” An enormous striped figure pounced over and pinned the snarling wolf to the ground.
“Arooooo!” The wolf struggled, but the tiger wouldn’t budge.
“Shizun has a bad temper,” he insisted, “so please be more understanding.”
The cat sauntered over and patted the dog’s head with a paw. “Didn’t you claim to be a descendant of the Celestial Hound?”
“That’s right!” The wolf wagged his tail proudly.
“And you still say you’re not a dog.” The cat stretched languidly and jumped onto the bed, too lazy to bother with him.
The sect leader was growing anxious now. “But the Celestial Hound is also one of my ancestors! Really! Dog’s honor!”
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MINI EXTRA
Dog’s Honor
Little Tianlang: Tongtong, the meat Shizun cooks isn’t tasty at all.
Little Qingtong: Really?
Little Tianlang: Really. It’s so unappetizing I don’t feel like eating. Dog’s honor.
Little Qingtong: *pushes over the aromatic meat that Shizun cooked and looks at Shixiong*
Little Tianlang: …Woof!