Chapter 33 The puppy attracts the kitten
There was only a table and a bed in the room. Although it was simple, it was clean. He hadn't been back for more than half a year, and there was no dust on it.
It was probably that little girl who secretly took care of it again.
A soft quilt was laid out on the bed. Xu Cangyu lay down as soon as her head touched the bed, turned her head, and leaned against the soft pillow. Xue Wenxiang sat at the square table next to her, lit a fire to brew tea, and acted as if she were an outsider.
“If you don’t go back, you won’t have anywhere to sleep.”
She stopped poking at the flames and looked at the fairly spacious bed beneath him: "What do you mean there's no room? There's still room for one more person to sleep next to you."
"That won't do, I'm used to sleeping alone."
Xue Wenxiang snorted: "We didn't sleep in the same place at the Bitter Cultivation Cliff. I gave the little girl five hundred taels. That's enough to buy you a whole room, let alone a bed."
Xu Zangyu thought about it and realized it was true; he felt guilty for accepting food from others.
"It's my fault for not being a good host." I almost forgot that Xue Wenxiang is a fool with lots of money.
"It's not too late for you to know now. I'm a generous person, I won't take your whole bed, I'll give you half."
Before he could even get into bed, a blanket was thrown over, and Xu Cangyu pointed to the empty space at the foot of the bed.
"The quilt that was recently turned over is for the young master to sleep on the floor."
"You're making me sleep on the floor!" Xue Wenxiang exclaimed in disbelief, even feeling ashamed for spending money to suffer like this.
"There are no spare rooms available right now, but I'll definitely have someone prepare one for you tomorrow."
"Need not."
It's better to sleep on the floor.
Those dilapidated places were not even as good as Xu Zangyu's house.
"Okay, go to sleep now."
Xue Wenxiang, who was holding the quilt, saw him yawn and then drifted off to sleep.
He stared at the ground for a long time, but in the end, he didn't throw the fragrant quilt on the ground and ruin it.
The night air was cool, and the bright moon and gentle breeze carried the scent into the room. The person curled up looked just like a lazy cat.
I wonder if those claws will scratch people.
In the middle of the night, he was the only one standing there like a fool, letting the wind blow on him, while the other person slept soundly without any remorse.
Xue Wenxiang felt uneasy watching this, and her hands itched to pinch that soft little face, which made her feel much better.
What are you doing?
The cat, awakened, opened its sleepy eyes, still dazed from being teased, its voice soft, looking particularly easy to bully.
Xue Wenxiang felt she had been too eager to touch him, and wished she could hold his head and ruffle it.
But under Xu Zangyu's gradually clearing and malevolent gaze, he withdrew his wicked hand.
Just as Xu Zangyu was wondering if he was itching to do something naughty, he was suddenly overwhelmed by the blanket.
After finally managing to pry his head out, I saw his disdainful expression.
"You look very weak, you should cover yourself up."
Xu Zangyu: "..." Should I praise your kindness?
The chirping of birds in the woods awakens the first rays of dawn, and the misty fog squeezes into the house, filling it with a cool, damp atmosphere.
The boy, who was lying on the table, had a light frost on his dark eyebrows.
Xu Zangyu began to ponder whether this counted as bullying a child.
He quietly took the cloak hanging nearby, but instead of draping it over himself, he covered the poor, still-sleeping ghost with it.
He straightened his clothes and left quietly.
Walking along the scattered medicinal herb fields, one can already see people working in the fields.
According to the time, it should be bright daylight by now, but it is foggy and misty. The morning mist is moist, but the soil on the ground is very dry.
Places lacking the earth's energy are always barren.
Living here requires twice the effort to reap the rewards of one's labor.
“Xu boy, no, I should call you Boss Xu now,” the man put down the water ladle and carefully examined the increasingly handsome young man in front of him. He couldn’t help but sigh, “The feng shui of the immortal sect is truly nurturing. I almost didn’t recognize you after a year. Now, which girl can take her eyes off you?”
"Uncle Zheng, please don't make fun of me. How's the harvest now?"
Xu Zangyu always came and went in a hurry, only to return to the Immortal Sect after a brief visit. The pharmacy was also managed by Zheng Ruo and Uncle Zheng, but he knew that what he did could only barely support the people of Yu'an Village.
After watering the seedlings with several buckets of water, Yanba's medicinal plants barely perked up a bit, and Zheng Qian finally wiped the sweat from his brow and rested for a while.
"Perhaps it's the weather, but this year's harvest is down by 20% again."
Having reviewed the pharmacy's ledgers, Xu Zangyu knew that the annual income had been decreasing. He naturally did not suspect that Uncle Zheng had embezzled the money, but rather that there was a problem with the cultivation of the raw materials.
This can't go on.
"Uncle Zheng, why don't we have everyone move out?"
"No, our ancestors have guarded this place for generations."
The man's attachment to his homeland prevented him from leaving this land. Touching the withered rice seedlings under his hands, his straight back hunched over like a small mountain, and a look of painful struggle flashed in his eyes.
“Xu kid, you can take others away if you want, but I, Old Zheng, am not leaving.”
"Why?" Xu Zangyu didn't understand. It was just a piece of broken land. Couldn't they live without it?
“The spirits of our ancestors in Yu’an Village are still here. Everyone has passed away, so who will remember this place? As long as there are people guarding this place, it will not be forgotten.”
No matter how rotten or broken it is, it is still our homeland.
The world fell silent.
Xu Zangyu had heard since childhood that thousands of years ago, before the human world was a cultivation world, there was an immortal in Yu'an Village who died fighting against demonic insects to protect the peace of the human race. His heroic spirit did not disperse and protected this place.
In later generations, spiritual energy flourished, and humankind prospered.
It sounds like a myth to comfort future generations.
Xu Zangyu had suspected that this place might be hiding a secret plot or rare treasures, but after secretly observing it for so many years, he hadn't found a single thing.
I tried several times to help them leave, but to no avail, so I had to give up.
As they strolled through the fields, the shadow on one side gradually became clearer. The boy's hair was blown about by the wind, his hair ribbon fluttering, and then it was suddenly grabbed by another outstretched hand.
"what you do?"
He was restless as soon as he woke up; kids are just naturally impulsive, and he even picked up the bad habit of pulling people's hair.
Xue Wenxiang admitted that she was just being nosy, not only wanting to play with the hairband on her fingertips, but also wanting to ruffle his fuzzy hair.
But when he saw that Xu Zangyu still treated him like a child, his words took a different turn.
"Your hair is loose, let me tie it up for you."
Xu Zangyu felt his hand fiddling with his head for a while, and when he reached out to touch it, it didn't get messed up at all.
“My birthday is coming soon, I’ll be sixteen after that,” he emphasized deliberately. “Ordinary families also get married and have children at sixteen, I’m not some child.”
Xue Wenxiang stood half a head taller than him, looking down at him. Although his face still had a youthful appearance, his features were becoming increasingly defined. When he looked at people with his deep and resolute eyes, he was quite intimidating, and it was hard to tell his age.
The only conspicuous thing was the tuft of curly hair that had been pressed down by his sleeping head, which swayed in the wind like a little dog's paw.
"Young Master Xue has achieved great things at a young age and has taken control of Anxiang Tower. Who would dare to disregard you?"
His pursed lips slowly curved upwards, no longer trying to appear mature beyond his years.
But the next moment, someone rubbed his head like a dog, and even pulled his chin. Isn't this just petting a dog?
It was indeed a habitual action; only after seeing his eyes widen did I feel guilty and try to make amends.
"I didn't treat you like a child, I just thought you were cute."
His face remained blank for a long time, unsure whether he should be angry or not.
Why use such an awkward word when you could just say "cute" or "pretty"?
If you like something, just like it; why make excuses?
He chased after Xu Zangyu, his braid swinging high: "What are you doing here?"
"I think there might be a way to remedy the situation."
At the beginning of the morning, he noticed that Xue Wenxiang was still wearing a cloak: "Are you still cold?"
A cultivator's body is naturally not cold. It's just that when he woke up, he found that someone still had a conscience and didn't want to throw away the warmth that still clung to him so soon.
"I don't know who built it, but perhaps their conscience as human beings was condemned."
Xu Zangyu was already used to his insincerity. He squatted down, touched the ground with his palm, and used his spiritual power to sense the world around him.
However, what they could reach was still too little; their spiritual energy seemed to wander aimlessly in the ocean, without any end in sight.
A person squatted down beside him, holding a ritual implement the size of a bowl in his hand. Below it was a compass, and above it floated a bronze dragon, whose head swayed as he moved.
"You can't search like that."
"Is this a spirit-finding compass?"
There are compasses on the market that can be used to find spiritual energy, and they are quite expensive. They are mostly used in places with abundant spiritual energy to find spiritual eyes, so they are clearly not suitable for this purpose.
“The items from Anxianglou are no ordinary objects; this is an evil-avoiding compass, specifically designed to ward off evil spirits.”
His gaze turned serious: "This thing reacted violently when it was taken out just now. If this place isn't a dead zone, it might be hiding some evil spirit."
After violently shaking its head, the dragon pointed directly at the desolate forest to its right front.
The two exchanged a glance and chased after him, but Uncle Zheng saw this and quickly stepped forward to stop them.
"That's Black Mountain over there, full of poisonous plants and insects. Old Zhang's son was bitten by poisonous insects and died. You two shouldn't go there."
“We Golden Core cultivators aren’t afraid of poisonous insects.” Xue Wenxiang took two insect repellent pills, one on her waist and the other on Xu Cangyu.
Uncle Zheng didn't stop them, and watched the two leave with concern.
"Go quickly and return quickly, do not linger."
"Don't worry, Uncle Zheng."
The figure waving disappeared into the woods.
The dragon's head stopped here, blocked by a steep cliff.
"There's no way out." Xue Wenxiang looked around and, apart from some poisonous plants, didn't see many poisonous snakes or insects.
"People in Yu'an Village tell their children from a young age that poisonous insects in the Black Mountain eat people, so I thought this was a mountain of worms."
As you can see with your own eyes, there isn't even a single flying insect here.
Xue Wenxiang patted the motionless averting evil disc: "If this thing breaks after only two uses, I'll have to ask those old guys at Anxiang Tower."
"No, it smells of blood."
Faintly audible, but with a low whimper, Xu Cangyu ran over and parted the bushes from which the sound was coming from. Inside, there was a beautiful white fox.
It was curled up on the ground trembling, with no obvious wounds on its body, only bloodstains on the white fur of its front paws.
There was a hole bitten there, and something was moving under the skin and flesh. In no time, the front paw gnawed off a piece of skin and flesh.
Long, thin worms were exposed, their densely packed, needle-like toes piercing into the flesh, their bloodied mouths filled with sharp teeth.
"What disgusting stuff."
Xue Wenxiang felt like vomiting just looking at it, so he pulled Xu Cangyu aside and said, "Don't get that stuff on you."
A burst of spiritual energy struck the creature, binding and dragging it out. The two witnessed a horrifying scene: the creature had completely consumed the spiritual energy, hissing and snarling, before burrowing back into the fox's flesh right in front of them.
Eating meat, and even eating insects imbued with spiritual energy, what kind of monster is this?
This fox looked very intelligent. Even though it was in so much pain, it didn't cry out. In fact, when Xu Zangyu reached out, it withdrew its paw, as if afraid that he would be implicated.
After pondering for a while.
"This insect probably won't come out unless it sees flesh and blood."
Seeing this, Xue Wenxiang went and killed a pheasant, released some blood at its feet, and the strong smell of blood flowed over, causing the creature to only peek out before shrinking back.
"What a cunning insect! It doesn't eat the flesh of livestock. Could it be that it wants to eat human flesh?"
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