Hua Jian wasn’t particularly fond of raising small pets, but considering that these little creatures could bring her plenty of Spirit Stone income, she was still willing to provide them with a rather decent living environment.
Of course, that was on the condition that these little cuties let her catch them obediently.
“The frost hasn’t melted yet, which means this cat hasn’t been gone long. Let’s go after it!”
Following the trail of paw prints, Hua Jian eventually lost track of the Lingmao under a large tree—perhaps the Lingmao had climbed up the tree, or maybe the ground here wasn’t moist enough for it to leave prints.
Shiqi looked down and scanned the ground, but didn’t find any trace of Lingmao’s paw prints.
Helplessly, she turned to Hua Jian, “No paw prints. What now?”
“Linglong! Smell it out!” Hua Jian ordered Linglong unceremoniously.
Even though the prints were gone, they still had Linglong’s Dragon Nose, which was even more sensitive than a dog’s.
Wouldn’t it be simple to sniff out the kitten’s scent?
After tracking it all this way, Hua Jian figured Linglong should be well-acquainted with the Lingmao’s scent by now.
They just had to keep following the trail.
Obviously, she should have been the leader of this little team, but now she’d become Hua Jian’s personal tracker.
This sudden reversal left Linglong speechless.
But what could she do? She’d chosen this herself—she could only endure it.
After sniffing around a couple times, she did indeed pick up a distinctly cold scent.
She could be almost certain it was left by the Lingmao.
As Hua Jian had guessed, starting from here, the Lingmao must have gone up the tree, which explained why the prints disappeared.
The three of them continued chasing the trail.
After half a day, they still hadn’t caught up with the Lingmao, leaving Hua Jian quite perplexed.
How could a Lingmao run so far?
Normally, every Spirit Beast had its own Territory and roamed freely within it, but this Lingmao was clearly covering a much larger range than a Spirit Beast should.
“I thought cats were all pretty lazy. Why is this one so energetic?”
“Why would you think that?”
Linglong was even more confused than Hua Jian when she heard her mutterings.
Spirit Beasts wanting to survive simply couldn’t afford to be lazy.
The Shuanghua Lingmao was especially renowned as a little hunter of the Northern Border, spending most of its day roaming and hunting.
It was the complete opposite of lazy.
“The scent here is much stronger than before. We’re about to catch up to it.”
After teasing Hua Jian about her strange impression of Lingmao, Linglong brought good news.
The Lingmao was close by—it couldn’t be far.
“Alright, alright, wait a moment, I’ll use Flower Fragrance.”
Hearing that this long pursuit was finally nearing its end, Hua Jian was immediately in a good mood.
To lure the little cat into her trap, she purposely released her Flower Fragrance.
When activated, Flower Fragrance would continuously attract Spirit Beasts toward her—naturally, the little Lingmao would be drawn in as well.
“Wait, if you do that, I won’t be able to smell the Lingmao anymore.”
Linglong hadn’t even finished speaking before Hua Jian switched her Flower Fragrance to its attraction mode, completely overwhelming her sense of the Lingmao’s scent.
That’s the double-edged sword of Hua Jian’s Flower Fragrance—especially in situations like this.
“Let’s just follow its last known direction. I think we’ll see it walk right into our hands soon enough!”
Hua Jian didn’t think it was a problem.
Since the cat was nearby, she activated her Flower Fragrance to lure it herself.
It was so much easier to let the target come to you, instead of painstakingly searching every hidden corner for a kitten.
After they walked a little further, Linglong suddenly reached out and stopped Hua Jian. “I smell blood.”
The pungent scent of blood pierced through the Flower Fragrance around Hua Jian, assaulting Linglong’s nose.
“It’s not Spirit Beast blood—it’s human.”
Human blood and beast blood smelled different. Linglong was certain that what she smelled was definitely human blood.
“Are there people nearby who were attacked by Spirit Beasts?” Taijian quietly drew her sword, readying herself for any threat.
Hua Jian reined in her Flower Fragrance a bit, and a Colored Vine began to grow from her palm.
A Spirit Beast that attacked people? Looked like a fight was coming.
On high alert, the three of them edged closer to the source of the blood scent, only to discover a truly bizarre scene.
A girl of about fifteen or sixteen was pinned to a massive tree by a sword, crimson blood oozing steadily from her chest and trickling down her body to form a small Blood Pool beneath her.
A snow-white kitten stood by her shoulder, repeatedly patting the girl’s cheek with its front paw, as if trying to wake her up.
Near the girl, several dead Spirit Beasts lay on the ground, their bodies marked with many Frosty Claw Marks—clear evidence of whose handiwork it was.
The Lingmao also sensed the unfamiliar presence and glared coldly at the three intruders with its icy blue eyes.
But soon, as if realizing something, it pounced straight toward Hua Jian.
Instinctively, Hua Jian reached out and caught the little cat in her arms.
Eh?
Was this little cat always so friendly? Or was her Flower Fragrance really that effective?
“Don’t just stand there—help her!” Linglong had already rushed to the pinned girl’s side, frowning deeply as she examined the wound.
Clearly, the girl had been attacked by another cultivator, someone far stronger than her, or perhaps someone who had gained her trust.
Otherwise, her body would bear signs of a fight, not a single sword through the chest nailing her to the Tree of Impalement.
Yet her constitution was anything but ordinary. An ordinary cultivator would’ve died long ago from a wound like this, but this girl still had a sliver of life left.
“Look at the blood by her feet—she’s been nailed here for several days now.”
Taijian came over as well, squatting down to examine the Blood Pool before voicing a conclusion even she found hard to believe.
What kind of cockroach-like vitality was this? Pierced through the heart and nailed to a tree for days, yet still alive?
Her life force was almost too resilient.
“Never mind all that, let’s get her down first.” Linglong called to Hua Jian, “Hua Jian, help me pull the sword out of the tree.”
“Got it. Though this kitten seems familiar, like I’ve seen it somewhere before.” Hua Jian muttered as she walked over.
Seeing the situation, she quickly summoned her vines to dig out the sword from the Tree of Impalement.
After some effort, she managed to extract the sword without damaging it.
“That was a grudge that really drove the sword deep…”
Whoever did this had meant to kill her outright. If not for her Special Constitution, this sword would’ve easily finished her off.
Unfortunately for the attacker, the victim turned out to have an unreasonable constitution.
Even after being impaled through the heart and hung in the deep mountains for days, she still clung to life—who could have expected that?
“Such a shoddy job. You’ve already pierced her heart—why not chop off her head or burn the body to ashes?”
Hua Jian grumbled as she and Linglong worked together to pull the sword out of the girl’s chest.
Strictly speaking, they shouldn’t be yanking the sword out like this, but none of the three were doctors—they could only take things one step at a time.
Linglong fed the girl a healing pill of the Ling Wang Realm, while Hua Jian quickly pulled the sword free from the girl’s chest.
Shh!
As the blade slid out, a gush of hot blood spurted from the wound, drenching Hua Jian’s face.
Hua Jian was startled, thinking she’d killed the girl by pulling the sword.
But she quickly realized—anyone who could hang on a tree for days like this wouldn’t die so easily.
After the blood spurted, the wound on her chest rapidly began to heal. Hua Jian was still wiping her face, but the wound was already gone.
“Heals pretty fast…”
Hua Jian tossed her bloodied handkerchief to the ground, and a few green branches sprouted from the earth to shred and bury it deep underground.
Anything stained with blood should be destroyed on the spot; in the wrong hands, it could lead to trouble.
“I gave her a healing pill of the Ling Wang Realm, but she’s recovering so quickly because of her own ability.”
Linglong pressed her hand to the girl’s chest and, feeling a strong heartbeat, finally relaxed a bit.
Come to think of it, was this girl a little too well-developed?
Linglong glanced at the girl’s prominent curves.
Because of the sword, her chest had a large tear in her clothes, and the blood had soaked her shirt, making her figure very clear to see.
“So finishing the job is important… Linglong, why are you staring at her chest? Don’t tell me you like that sort of thing?”
Hua Jian teased, noticing Linglong’s gaze was fixed on something odd.
What a surprise! Who’d have thought the dignified Saintess of Yaochi would be such a hypocrite, staring at someone’s chest so blatantly. Shameless!
“I just thought… her figure is rather impressive.” Linglong coughed lightly, mumbling an explanation.
It was a convincing excuse. Among their group, both Hua Jian and Taijian were a bit lacking—one had only a slight curve, the other could crossdress as a man without a problem.
The best-developed among the three was Linglong, and she was just average. In this respect, none of them really stood out.
But this girl—she really stood out.
“Let’s find a safe place and wait for her to wake up. I’ll carry her.” With that, Linglong hoisted the girl onto her back.
At this moment, the Lingmao, which had been guarding the girl, trotted over, jumped twice in front of Linglong, then walked a couple of steps in a certain direction before looking back and meowing.
“Looks like it wants us to follow?” Hua Jian guessed the little cat’s meaning.
What a smart little guy. No wonder people paid big money to keep them as pets.
Following the Lingmao for a while, just as dusk approached, they arrived at the Lingmao’s lair in the forest.
How did Hua Jian know this was the Lingmao’s home?
Because the place was filled with the Lingmao’s scent—and she even spotted a Fragrant Sachet discarded in a corner.
She bent to pick it up, and a vague memory slowly resurfaced in her mind.
So that’s why there was a Northern Border Spirit Beast here—it was an old friend!
This was the little Lingmao that Miss Chai had lost while fleeing her pursuers. What a small world.
“Technically, Chai Xianyun let it go, so if I catch and resell it, that’s fair.”
Hua Jian handed the sachet to Linglong and Shiqi to see and gave her analysis.
Now that she knew the little cat was an acquaintance, Shiqi’s expression grew complicated.
She was starting to believe the odd things Hua Jian always said.
Could such coincidences really happen? Did Hua Jian have protagonist’s luck?
“But maybe it’s already recognized a master. Otherwise, why would it protect this child?”
Linglong suggested Hua Jian take it easy—perhaps the unconscious girl was its new owner.
“Who knows? I’ll ask the little guy.” Hua Jian beckoned to the kitten.
The white cat pranced over and sprawled across Hua Jian’s thigh, letting her pet it.
While lowering the kitten’s guard with petting, Hua Jian stealthily summoned a Colored Vine to probe the cat’s ear.
Maybe it was just enjoying the petting, because the thin vines slipped into its ear before it realized anything was wrong. By then, it was too late.
The vines quickly branched out in the Lingmao’s ear, establishing a Soul Connection between Hua Jian and the kitten.
Shuanghua Lingmao were indeed a bit smarter than regular Spirit Beasts, but still nowhere near human intelligence.
Once the Soul Connection was made, all Hua Jian could sense were the Lingmao’s emotions and some vague thoughts.
Most Spirit Beasts didn’t really think—they simply attacked prey when they saw it. Simple and direct.
When Hua Jian asked why the Lingmao protected the girl, its answer made her chuckle.
It hadn’t recognized the girl as its master; it just remembered her—she’d eaten fruit it offered, which made the Lingmao feel respected.
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