The cultivation technique Su Yao taught to Lang Junxian was very simple.
The hardest part was that Lang Junxian first had to draw spiritual energy into his body.
After the great war, heaven and earth were depleted of spiritual energy.
This first step of drawing energy into the body had blocked countless people on their path of cultivation.
When Lang Junxian was with his family, because his mother was of the demon race, his status was humble and he was not accepted by the family.
Growing up, aside from what his mother told him, he had never actually come into contact with cultivation.
However, by mistake, since he hadn’t practiced any human techniques before, switching to demon techniques now didn’t cause conflict — actually saving a lot of trouble.
At dawn, Su Yao took Lang Junxian to the top of the mountain where the spiritual energy was most abundant to meditate and try to draw energy into his body.
Bai Maomao (the little white creature) also came along, drowsily perched on Lang Junxian’s head, nodding off.
These days, he’d been sleeping in the same room as Lang Junxian.
Once Lang Junxian got up, he followed.
Lang Junxian faced the mountain below, found a spot to sit, and closed his eyes to meditate.
Bai Maomao jumped down sensibly and squatted nearby to wait quietly.
Lang Junxian closed his eyes, sensing the flow of air around him.
There was a slight sound of wind brushing past his ears, quickly fading.
From afar, there seemed to be birds chirping, lively and noisy…
But unable to see, his hearing became more sensitive.
Lang Junxian carefully distinguished all sorts of sounds.
These noises, which should have been chaotic, to him carried a mysterious rhythm.
The messy sounds gathered, gradually blending, converging — like countless streams flowing into the sea.
Lang Junxian’s eyeballs moved rapidly.
As time passed, those mysterious sounds quickly receded and disappeared…
The world returned to calm.
Lang Junxian felt like he was sitting on a still water surface.
Ripples gently and slowly lapped against his position — once, twice, three times…
The waves came up and receded, threads of moisture seeped into his body through his limbs and bones.
The gentle water ripples traveled through his entire body, gradually spreading everywhere.
After circulating once, they gathered and merged again in his dantian (energy center), then like before, started out from the dantian to travel throughout his body again…
Lang Junxian felt an unprecedented comfort in his body.
His whole being seemed much lighter, without the heaviness he’d felt before.
The ears on top of his head twitched comfortably.
Lang Junxian slowly opened his eyes.
The mountain top was still the same mountain top, but what he could see was far more than before.
The clouds in the mountains, the forests below, the flying birds — every detail was clear.
“Congratulations.”
Lang Junxian broke into a happy smile and bowed to Su Yao.
“Thank you, Mother, for teaching me.”
Su Yao waved her hand.
“It’s because you’re talented. In so many years, you’re only the second person I’ve seen draw energy into the body so quickly.”
“The first person is?”
Su Yao’s lips curved slightly, her face showing a bit of pride.
She pointed to Bai Maomao, who was sitting there with eyes closed.
“Maomao only took three days to draw energy into his body back then.”
Lang Junxian looked down at Bai Maomao, whose head was tucked under his wing as if asleep.
Was he cultivating or just sleeping?
“Maomao is a naturally born demon race, a pure spiritual body. He doesn’t even need deliberate cultivation — his body circulates spiritual energy on its own. Earlier, when you entered meditation, Maomao was affected by the spiritual energy around you and entered meditation as well. He still hasn’t woken up.”
Lang Junxian looked at the soft little Bai Maomao.
He had originally thought it was just a clever little beast, not expecting it to be a demon.
“Then…in the future, he can take human form?”
Su Yao blinked and smiled.
“Of course. Maomao is still young. When he grows up and passes his tribulation, he’ll be able to take human form.”
Lang Junxian quietly digested this new knowledge.
Able to take human form, huh…
Looking at the tiny Bai Maomao, he wondered what he’d look like grown up.
Lang Junxian shook his head, sat back down, and silently circulated the thin spiritual energy inside his body again.
After circulating his energy through three small cycles, when Lang Junxian opened his eyes again, Bai Maomao was already standing there with his little wings spread, waiting for him.
Lang Junxian smiled, putting away his earlier casual attitude of treating him like a pet.
He gently patted Bai Maomao on the head, picked him up, and set him on top of his own head. Then he swayed slightly as he walked down the mountain.
Su Yao followed behind them, watching Bai Maomao on top flap his wings from time to time, eager to try flying.
Su Yao shook her head with a smile — it seemed that taking in Xiao Hei this time was indeed the right decision.
At the very least, Maomao now had a playmate.
It had been more than half a month since the earthquake.
Other than following Lang Junxian to cultivate every day, Bai Maomao spent the rest of the time running wildly all over the mountain.
Su Yao wasn’t worried.
There was a barrier around Yuze Mountain, so ordinary people couldn’t get in, and she simply let Bai Maomao play wherever he wanted.
Not long after the earthquake, many trees in the forest had fallen, and the frightened wild animals hid in their dens, not daring to come out.
Bai Maomao ran ahead with his wings spread, inspecting his territory one spot after another.
Aside from the little vine’s domain, Bai Maomao had many other treasure stashes — and many good friends.
Now that the little vine had fallen into a deep sleep, Bai Maomao, brimming with energy, began visiting each of his friends one by one.
The nearest to where they lived was a tabby cat’s territory.
Bai Maomao hopped and skipped to the entrance of a cave and called out with long and short cries.
Before long, faint responding calls came from inside the cave.
They matched the rhythm of Bai Maomao’s cries exactly.
Lang Junxian thought, this must be some kind of secret code between Bai Maomao and his friends.
Soon, a furry little head poked out from the cave entrance.
The tabby cat cautiously observed for a moment before finally relaxing and coming out to greet Bai Maomao.
“Gaa!”
Bai Maomao leaned in to rub faces with the tabby.
The tabby stuck out its tongue and gave Bai Maomao a lick, and before long the two little ones were rolling around together in a playful tussle.
After roughhousing to their heart’s content, the two cubs sat facing each other, taking turns sharing news from the past few days.
Bai Maomao: “Gaa gaa.”
That earthquake the other day was really scary.
Tabby cat: “Meow!”
If I hadn’t run fast enough, I would have been crushed inside my den.
Bai Maomao with a concerned look: “Gaa?”
Were you hurt?
The tabby shook its head, a little smug.
“Meow meow meow”
How could a clever king like me possibly get hurt?
The tabby’s eyes spun around twice and it showed a mischievous grin.
“Meow meow meow~”
I heard the mutt next door broke his leg.
…
The two little ones pressed their heads together, chatting away happily.
Lang Junxian listened for a bit but realized he couldn’t understand a word.
So he simply sat by a tree and began to meditate.
By the time Bai Maomao had chatted enough with the tabby cat, the whole morning had already passed.
Bai Maomao reluctantly bid the tabby farewell and, humming an off-key little tune, walked deeper into the woods to visit his other friends.
Quietly following behind, Lang Junxian got quite an eye-opening experience.
Bai Maomao’s friends ranged from plants to animals, from birds to beasts — there was nothing he didn’t seem to know.
Even walking along the road, if Bai Maomao saw a sparrow, he would run over and “gaa gaa gaa” to chat with it for half the day.
Lang Junxian finally came to realize just how popular Bai Maomao was.
It seemed that all the woodland residents were very fond of Bai Maomao.
Of course, there were some who were not so friendly.
Halfway along, they encountered a monkey.
This monkey had been following them for quite some time.
Lang Junxian had noticed from the start but hadn’t paid it much mind.
Now it seemed that this monkey might actually be one of Bai Maomao’s enemies.
As soon as they saw each other, the two started baring teeth and yelling.
The monkey bared its sharp teeth, while Bai Maomao shook his little fist.
Lang Junxian subtly moved closer to Bai Maomao, ready to help block an attack at any moment.
But Bai Maomao wasn’t nearly as soft as he looked.
He flapped his little wings and gave a sharp “Gaa,” then with a spring of his skinny little legs, he leapt right in front of the monkey.
He stretched out his right wing and gave the monkey’s red face a hard slap.
The monkey staggered back and plopped onto the ground, dazedly looking at the proud Bai Maomao.
Bai Maomao gave a few kicks of his legs, threateningly spread his wings, and let out a “Gaa!”
The monkey sat there blankly for a while, then snapped out of it.
Seeing Bai Maomao’s spread wings, it let out two “Chir chir” sounds and scrambled away into the forest.
Lang Junxian: …
Bai Maomao happily flapped his wings, turned to Lang Junxian with a face full of pride, asking for praise.
Lang Junxian calmly praised him,
“Senior brother is amazing.”
Bai Maomao was even happier.
“Gaa~”
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