The fact that she had been kissing and hugging another girl in a flirtatious way had not escaped the notice of the elders.
For Linglong, this revelation was an enormous shock.
Upon hearing the news, the Little Dragon Girl’s entire demeanor drained of color.
Just the thought that Fenghua Venerable might record this incident in her little book and report it to her Master made her want to die.
Master knowing = Mother knowing. And if her mother found out about this, Linglong really couldn’t predict how she would react.
Probably start preparing the betrothal gifts for Hua Jian… Ugh, just the thought of that made Linglong want to die even more.
She firmly believed that with her mother’s uniquely twisted way of thinking, she was absolutely capable of pulling something like that off.
“It’s just that you got drunk and lost control in front of the Venerable. No need to be so desperate. Everyone loses it sometimes; the Venerable will understand,” Hua Jian tried to comfort Linglong, though it had little effect.
“You don’t understand. If Master and my mother hear about this, they’ll definitely interpret it as me growing up and starting to have feelings for girls.”
“Isn’t that true?!” Hua Jian exclaimed in surprise.
A black hash mark suddenly popped up on Linglong’s forehead.
“Of course not!”
“Then why did you force me to do those things with you? I don’t believe you don’t have any feelings for me at all.”
Another hash mark appeared next to the first on Linglong’s forehead.
In some ways, Hua Jian truly had a knack for comforting others. See? Linglong had just switched from a withdrawn state to an angry one.
If Hua Jian teased her a little more, Linglong might completely snap out of her earlier mood.
And troublemaking was Hua Jian’s nature—of course, she would keep pushing.
“After all, I’m so beautiful, and my personality is so noble. It’s only natural you like me… Ow! Stop hitting me, you violent maniac!”
……
After a bit of a fuss, Linglong finally calmed down, and the two began their day’s itinerary.
They needed to buy some supplies for the journey ahead.
After all, their upcoming travels wouldn’t be so comfortable.
The further they ventured toward the outskirts of Zhongzhou, the fewer large cities there were.
Sometimes it would take days of flying before encountering a single city.
The spirit energy in those places was even more scarce than where Hua Jian had lived before, and the cultivator forces were pitifully few.
How annoying.
But before they even stepped out of the inn’s door, they ran into a minor problem.
A snow-white little cat suddenly dashed out from somewhere and leapt right into Hua Jian’s arms.
The next second, Hua Jian heard an angry shout: “Thief!”
What?!
Suddenly surrounded by several men in black, Hua Jian blinked. “What the—extortion!”
She had never encountered such a simple and direct case of extortion before.
The cat had just jumped into her arms, and immediately someone shouted “thief.” Hua Jian wasn’t buying that coincidence for a second.
Linglong already had her hand on her Ling Sword, pale electric sparks flickering faintly on the blade.
The few surrounding men were all Lingshi-level cultivators, not very strong.
If it came to a fight, Linglong was confident she could get both of them out safely… no, she thought they could easily beat these few men.
But the real difficulty wasn’t these Lingshi. Linglong sensed two extremely oppressive gazes from not far away—two Lingwang-level cultivators hidden in the shadows. That was the real problem.
“Give me back my kitty!” A girl in a pale yellow long dress stormed over to Hua Jian and reached to snatch the white cat from her arms.
Before Hua Jian could react, the little white cat swatted the girl’s hand with a paw.
“Yah!” The girl cried out in pain and then glared viciously at Hua Jian. “What did you feed my kitty?!”
Hua Jian looked at the girl, then at the familiar little cat refusing to leave her arms. A thought sprang up in her mind—one she barely dared believe herself.
This cat looked exactly like the Shuanghua Lingmao from the auction.
And it had been days, yet this little cat hadn’t starved to death.
The girl glaring at her must be the poor sucker who spent thousands of Spirit Stones to buy this little cat.
“I might be a catnip spirit or something. Look, I want to return it to you, but…” Hua Jian loosened her grip on the white cat, which stubbornly clung to her clothes with its paws.
Obviously, this wasn’t about theft at all—the cat simply preferred Hua Jian over the original owner.
“This… you bought it, so how could it treat me like this?”
The girl’s eyes turned red with anger. When she held the white cat, it only struggled and scratched wildly. Yet when it was in Hua Jian’s arms, it turned into the perfect little angel.
Such favoritism was truly infuriating!
“That means you’re incompatible, and Shuanghua Lingmao is naturally proud. If it doesn’t accept you, buying it is meaningless. Do you think a cat’s brain understands the concept of purchase?” Hua Jian re-cradled the Shuanghua Lingmao, now a little helpless.
It wasn’t people extorting them—it was the cat. This was truly a hard problem to solve.
She couldn’t just take the cat everywhere against its will. And while the yellow-dressed girl was indeed the legitimate owner who had bought it from the auction, the cat clearly preferred Hua Jian.
Could Hua Jian just take the cat away because the cat liked her more? That would be unreasonable, like those villains who always claim “this item is fated to me” and forcibly snatch things away.
Hua Jian wasn’t that kind of person… at least, not now.
So there was only one solution.
Hua Jian extended a finger, and a thin vine shot out from her fingertip, about to cast a Mist Array attack on the cat.
But the little cat suddenly lifted its head and bit Hua Jian’s finger.
“It bit me!” Hua Jian exclaimed in alarm.
A second later, she realized something was off—why didn’t it hurt?
On closer inspection, the cat wasn’t biting her but licking her finger.
The jealousy on the yellow dress girl’s face was now impossible to hide. Hua Jian was literally stealing her cat right in front of her eyes!
Realizing things were about to get out of hand, Hua Jian quickly used the Mist Array as planned, leaving the little cat dazed and limp in her arms.
“Here, take it back.” Hua Jian handed the now-fainted Lingmao to the girl, who bit her lip in defiance.
“Your little cat is so skinny it’s practically skin and bones. Don’t let it starve to death; that’d be such a waste of thousands of Spirit Stones.”
That comment made the yellow dress girl glance at Hua Jian again, realizing Hua Jian must have attended the auction days ago as well, knowing the cat’s worth.
Could she be a hidden expert?
“You can’t make it eat. What else can I do…” The girl sighed. No matter how she tried, the Shuanghua Lingmao refused all food. It seemed to prefer starving to death over yielding.
She had bought it as a pet, but now it was starving. Thousands of Spirit Stones down the drain—that hurt, even with her family’s wealth.
“So the buyer was the real sucker.” Hua Jian shrugged with zero sympathy for the yellow dress girl’s impending loss.
Hmph, such a wealthy show-off deserved a hard knock!
“You’re calling me the sucker!”
“Whoever takes it personally is the sucker. It’s not me losing money,” Hua Jian smirked, grabbing Linglong’s wrist.
“Let’s go, we’ve got things to do.”
With that, she pulled Linglong through the circle of black-clad men, who didn’t try to stop them.
Everyone could tell the “thief” shout was just a panicked outburst and not to be taken seriously. Now that the cat was returned, there was no reason to cause more trouble.
As for the girl’s displeasure… what could they do? They weren’t here to pick fights but to buy supplies.
The yellow dress girl stomped her foot in frustration, watching Hua Jian and Linglong walk away. “That heterochromatic-eyed girl is so annoying!”
When had she ever suffered such an insult—being called a sucker right to her face? Even if it were true, couldn’t they have spared her some dignity?
Did she have a problem liking such a pure and cute little creature?
“Miss, we’re setting off tomorrow. Best not to stir up trouble,” an elderly man in a gray robe emerged from behind the girl and spoke softly.
He was one of the Lingwangs who had been watching Linglong from the shadows. Compared to the Lingshi and the yellow dress girl, he saw far more.
Those two girls just now were definitely no ordinary people. Even faced with such a sudden incident, they showed no panic and handled it calmly.
The black-haired girl had even dared to mock the girl’s wealth openly, showing no respect.
What did that mean? It meant she didn’t truly see the yellow dress girl as special.
In other words, that girl probably also had some status. Best not to make enemies of them.
The purchased items were ready. Next, they had to safely deliver them back home.
Along the way, they would likely face many troubles, so it was best to avoid unnecessary conflicts.
“I understand, but…” The yellow dress girl glanced down at the skinny white cat and touched its bony body.
Everyone around had tried feeding it, but the Shuanghua Lingmao simply wouldn’t accept food.
If this continued, the cat would definitely starve to death.
She didn’t want to see a cat she’d spent thousands of Spirit Stones on become a corpse. Maybe… someone else could feed it for her?
“What? You want me to feed your cat?”
When Hua Jian returned to the inn after a day of shopping, she was met with a proposal she found hard to understand.
The yellow dress girl seemed to have been waiting in the hall for a long time.
Hua Jian showed a troubled expression. “It’s not that I don’t want to help…”
“I can pay you!”
“Cough, but, well, life is precious. Saving little lives is my duty!”
Linglong gave Hua Jian a helpless look. No matter how many times she saw Hua Jian’s sudden personality shifts, she couldn’t help but silently admire her.
Without strong mental fortitude, few could pull that off.
Linglong had no interest in this matter. She had bought plenty today and needed to return to her room to organize her Storage Pouch.
“Don’t be back too late,” she reminded, tacitly approving Hua Jian’s side job.
Her possessiveness only targeted those she saw as threats, and the yellow dress girl was hardly one.
She also believed Hua Jian’s tastes wouldn’t favor this girl.
At most, these two were just engaging in a brief py transaction paid in Spirit Stones.
If she micromanaged even this small matter, Hua Jian might get annoyed.
A meeting.
“You actually wanted to refuse just now, didn’t you?” The yellow dress girl looked at Hua Jian with a mysterious gaze.
“Did I? You must have misread. How could I be so heartless?”
Hua Jian shamelessly insisted that her change of heart wasn’t motivated by payment.
But that excuse only fooled fools.
“Thick-skinned.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
The yellow dress girl finally understood the phrase “shamelessness makes one invincible.” She had never seen such a blatant example before.
This was shameless to a degree that was almost natural!
Why would the Lingmao like a person like this? The cat must be blind!
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