Li Qingshan could clearly sense his behaviour. He asked, “Xiao An, what’s wrong?”
Xiao An only shook his head in confusion.
Only then did Li Qingshan ease up. “Alright, Xuanyue. Tell me right now why you can’t go to the Dragon province alone. Bringing me with you will only weigh you down.”
“Call me meowster! I’m being chased, so I need to hide away from them.”
And you have no sense of direction. Obviously, Li Qingshan could not say that. Her answer was exactly what he was expecting. To be able to send Gu Yanying to search for her cat, Xuanyue’s master, the Dark Queen, definitely possessed extremely great authority. Gu Yanying would not be alone in the search. However, since it was searching for a pet and not catching a criminal, the mission would seem safer. Even if she failed, nothing bad would happen to her. And, since this cat was bold enough to run away, she should have some grasp over the situation. In short, it was worth a gamble.
Li Qingshan was straightforward. “No problem, Xuanyue. However, I feel like we should tidy up first and come up with a proper plan before setting off.” He had an extremely deep impression of Gu Yanying’s terrifying senses. Perhaps she was observing him from the sky right now. Now that he had become like this, she might end up purging him as soon as she saw him.
A vein popped out from Xuanyue’s forehead. “I said to call me meowster!”
“Did you, Xuanyue?”
“Meow!!!” Xuanyue’s tail straightened out. She finally lost her temper.
Li Qingshan grabbed Xiao An who was about to fight back and let her kick and pound him. He just gritted his teeth. He discovered that while she was extremely fast, her strength was not particularly great, so he could endure her kicks and punches.
Xuanyue vented her anger, but she was not heavy-handed. After all, she still needed to depend on Li Qingshan for many matters, so she just said coldly, “Come with me!” She led Li Qingshan back to the waterfall before grabbing him and charging at the waterfall.
They passed through the curtain of water and were about to hit the rock face. However, just when Li Qingshan thought he was going to crash, the thick layer of rock ended up being an illusion. He passed through it harmlessly.
It was actually hiding something, an extremely large cave. Looking at the traces of chipped rock, it had clearly been dug out recently. As it seemed, she had been hiding here.
The place that the black ox chose for Li Qingshan to cultivate was truly a wonderful spot.
Xuanyue pulled out a small banner from her bell. Her cat bell was actually a storage bag.
Are you doraemon? Li Qingshan was dumbfounded. And from how the small banner shimmered with light, hiding most of its wonders, it was clearly an extremely rare spiritual artifact.
Xuanyue planted the banner at the entrance, and it immediately sealed up the cave firmly. Not even a single strand of spiritual qi or daemon qi could escape.
Afterwards, she removed many more things from her bell. First, she pulled out a thick mat made from the furs of some unknown animal and laid it down. Subsequently, she pulled out a small table, followed by some delicate utensils sculpted out of either ivory or jade.
She could evidently see in the dark, but she just had to pull out a lantern. The lantern did not glow from fire, but from a fist-sized pearl. With its hazy glow, it illuminated the entire cave, but it was not dazzling at all.
In the end, she pulled out an incense burner shaped like a crane, which gradually released a wondrous fragrance.
All of these items glowed. Under the illumination of the pearl, even the circulation of Li Qingshan’s qi became slightly faster. When he caught a whiff of the fragrance, he felt his mind ease up, and his head became much clearer.
Not a single item here could be measured using money. She was no pet. She was basically a princess. So much for being a refugee, she had actually prepared to such a level. She was just too extravagant.
Xuanyue sat down on the thick mat and pulled out a thick, snowy-white fillet. “It’s time to eat!” She did not even use the delicate utensils, directly using her hands and burying her face in it.
Li Qingshan watched in utter shock. Even the fish fillet glowed brightly.
Xuanyue glanced at him. She thought about how she was always very capricious in front of her master, but her master would always be very tolerant of her. Thinking about how she herself had been elevated to her master’s level now, she probably should learn from her own master, so she said in a reserved manner, “Big Blacko, I’ll give you this to eat.” Forgiving Li Qingshan’s capriciousness with great tolerance, she felt proud of herself once again.
Big Blacko? Can’t I have a proper name for once? Li Qingshan thought. However, he did not want to reveal his real name either in his current state. So be it, Big Blacko it is! He accepted a piece and began eating as well.
He did not stop at all during the process. Although the fish fillet was raw, it was extremely delicious. It would melt as soon as it touched his tongue, surpassing anything he had eaten in the past. And when he swallowed it, his daemon qi would gradually grow. It had the effects of spiritual medicine.
Originally, he could eat an entire deer, and he would often not feel particularly full. However, from just the piece of fish today, he felt his stomach swell. “Just who is this Dark Queen? Doesn’t she treat you well?”
Xuanyue glanced at him in contempt first before saying with great reverence, “There’s no one in the world who will treat Yue’er better than meowster. She’s beautiful, noble, and powerful. When I first met her, I was not even a daemeown. She was the one who fed me so meowny, so meowny spiritual pills and meowdicines.”
“And you’re still running away?”
“Don’t interrupt me!” Xuanyue glanced at Li Qingshan in displeasure. Her eyes widened to a surprising level as she propped up her cheek. “But, she’s just too clingy. She hugs meow all day, without even letting me go when she sleeps. Tell meow, how can I endure that?”
Li Qingshan thought, If the Dark Queen is as noble and beautiful as you have described her to be, I’d be utterly overjoyed if she treated me like that. Then he glanced at Xuanyue. I can even accept you.
“Forget it. Even if I tell you, you won’t understand. I can tell you’re quite smart, not as dumb as regular daemeowns, but you won’t be able to understand such deep and complicated emeowtions. Freedom, do you understand that word?”
Xuanyue muttered to herself with no intention of letting Li Qingshan reply. Her cat ears perked about.
Li Qingshan still managed to find the information he was searching for from the narcissistic monologue. In the entire Green province, probably only the wives of the provincial lord had the right to be referred to as a queen. She was a queen of the Fierce King of Chu.
The authority of the provincial lord spanned all fifteen thousand kilometers of the Green province. Xuanyue had escaped from the provincial lord’s estate, so all she could do was flee to other provinces.
Li Qingshan recalled the map of the Green province. “The provincial’s lord estate is in the south. Why did you come to the north and not travel further south?”
Xuanyue said, “What would you know? The Mist province in the south is all wilderness. Am I supposed to go there and starve? The Dragon province is the good place. That’s where the imperial court resides. There are pavilions and palaces, extravagant luxuries that a country bumpkin of a daemon like you can’t even fathom.”
Li Qingshan said, “Even if there are those things, no one will give them to you.” Do you think you’re a panda, where you can survive in this world just by acting cute?
Xuanyue said, “What would you know? I’m seeking refuge under the Nine-tailed Fox Empress. That’s the leader of the ten Daemeown. She’s beautiful, noble, and powerful…”
