“Cat?” Li Xianyu’s response was a little exaggerated. He looked at Great-Grandma and said, “Great-Grandma, did you hear the cat?”
Great-Grandma nodded in silence.
In the middle of the night, it was not pleasant to hear a cat barking in the wild mountains. In fact, it was a bit eerie.
According to folklore, the cat belonged to the yin category, on the extreme end. It could walk between the yang and the yin. Therefore, it was born with the spirit of yin and evil. If it leapt over the heads of the dead, it would cause the corpse to become a zombie.
“If ordinary people were on the mountain, they would get sick when they hear it,” Li Xianyu murmured, holding a flashlight, and walked out of the temple.
Outside the temple, the wind blew, leaves curled, branches rustled; the whole mountain seemed to be alive. The cat’s voice was hidden in the wind. It appeared far and near, as if it was crying and complaining.
“Wild cat?” Li Xianyu looked a little hesitant. “The demonic winds are intermittent. Don’t tell me it’s the cat god?”
The wind came suddenly. It felt a little demonic. The calls of the cat mingled with the wind. Li Xianyu thought of the scenes in TV dramas. Every time a demon appeared, the winds would be intermittent.
In the demon descendants’ community, he had never seen a foreign species appear like that. However, if it was a coincidence, it would be too much. The moment the cat called, the demonic wind came.
Great-Grandma, who was beside Li Xianyu, looked solemn. She stepped forward, squinted, and looked towards the darkness of the trees. “Mountain God?”
The cat’s voice disappeared. With the sound of branches and leaves, the light of Li Xianyu’s flashlight shone on two shining gems. It was a tawny cat, with tiger-like stripes, strong and slender body. The cat walked very gracefully. In terms of breed, it was a felis catus. In terms of the aura it gave off, it resembled a mountain tiger that lived in the depths of the mountains.
“Cat god?!” Li Xianyu turned around and pointed to the statue in the temple. “You can’t be the cat god in the temple.”
“Ignorant humans,” the felis catus said in disdain. “I am…”
“Fireworks of different colors,” Li Xianyu said.
“Human, don’t interrupt.” The felis catus was very unhappy.
“Ah,” Li Xianyu sneered. “The average lifespan of a cat is 15 years. Even if you are a demon descendant, you can live up to 60 years at maximum. However, this temple was built in 1891, more than 100 years ago. Where are you from, wild cat? You are pretending to be a sage of the same race, bluffing about your authority.”
In this world, apart from dragon salamanders, who had that natural talent, there were no foreign species who could live a thousand years. On the contrary, the lifespan of these foreign species were far lower than that of human demon descendants.
“Ignorant human.” The felis catus snorted and looked up at a 45 degree angle. It couldn’t be more arrogant.
“It’s a mountain god,” Great-Grandma said.
“How could it be?” Li Xianyu looked at her in surprise.
“Haven’t you been to the northeast? You should know that the former gods of Huang, Hui and Mang ate the incense that people offered.”
“So what?”
“Before the emergence of qi training, there was an ancient way of cultivation amongst the demon descendants’ community, that is, devouring the willpower.” Great-Grandma said, “Willpower is also known as spiritual force. It is the spiritual force produced by thousands of people. They will be collected and absorbed by the ‘godly spirits’ to achieve a whole new state. So, in ancient times, people and demons all wanted to ascend to the level of gods.”
“This way of becoming a god has its limitations. It does not increase combat power significantly, far less than how practicing qi could. However, it has a feature. Every god who devoured incense could live forever. In theory, as long as the incense continued to burn, they would last forever.”
These “gods” ate incense and protected everyone’s safety, but their existence was a threat to the imperial court. In order to prevent more and more “gods”, the imperial court dismissed all unrecognized temples as immoral places who housed evil gods.
“In modern times, there are more and more atheists who don’t worship Buddha. The rest of them worship the illusory gods.”
The felis catus stared at Great-Grandma with its blue eyes. “Hmph, little girl, you are knowledgeable.”
It was obviously a cat, but Li Xianyu saw coldness and arrogance in its eyes.
Great-Grandma also sneered arrogantly. “Little girl? I’m older than you.”
“I existed before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.” The felis catus was indignant.
“I was from the later part of the Qing Dynasty.”
The felis catus was shocked and tilted its head, looking at her in surprise.
Li Xianyu coughed and interrupted the two old souls, who looked rather childish.
“Since you are a mountain god, you should know that there is another rat disaster in this town. We came after a rat spirit. Have you seen it?” Li Xianyu asked the cat.
“Why should I tell you?” the felis catus replied, as it looked towards the sky in a 45 degree angle. This cat had such a bad character.
Li Xianyu said, “Isn’t it a cat’s duty to catch mice?”
“Young man, I can give you a chance.” The felis catus’s expression was that of “I’ll be kind,” as it said: “Recently, the people are suffering from the rat disaster. You go back to tell the stupid people at the foot of the mountain to repair the temple and get them to offer incense and worship every year. I will then be kind, and help them get rid of the rats.”
“People are destitute?” Li Xianyu waved repeatedly. “Impossible, impossible. You want them to worship you? I’ll find that rat spirit myself.”
The cat god was enraged. “This is your only chance. Besides myself, who can save the people at the foot of the mountain?”
“We’ll do it ourselves.”
“Well, you have to find it, too.”
“It doesn’t concern you,” Great-Grandma said. Great-Grandma, who felt like she had nothing more to say, took her great-grandson’s hand and walked away.
Li Xianyu finally looked back and saw that the trees were mottled, the temple was broken. The cat god stood in silence, looking at the once brilliant temple, giving off a trace of desolation.
When they were halfway up the mountain, Great-Grandma stopped suddenly and held out her hand. “Give me the tail of the mouse.”
Great-Grandma had cut off part of the rat’s tail in the water. Li Xianyu put it in his wallet. That tail could be used as a piece of important evidence. It was not good to throw it in the field anymore, or it would be on the news the next day.
“There is a Taoist method in Maoshan, which uses someone’s eight characters, hair, nails and other items as the medium to manipulate the target’s words and actions. It can also be used to find people and corpses,” Great-Grandma said.
She picked up a branch, drew a talisman in the soil, pulled her great-grandson towards her and bit on his neck.
Li Xianyu was stunned. The next moment, there was a sharp pain in his neck. The carotid artery had been broken by Great-Grandma, as blood spewed out onto the tail of the mouse and the talisman. After this, Great-Grandma bent her finger and shot out some sparks.
The talisman and rat tail started to burn..
Li Xianyu pressed against his neck wound, aggrieved, as he thought to himself, Fuck. I knew that there would be nothing good.
A few minutes later, the flame gradually extinguished as the tail of the rat turned into ashes. A crimson light rose from the ashes, which drifted into the dense forest.
The two of them followed the light trail through the forest and the stream. In a flash, the light stopped in front of a hidden cave covered by branches and leaves, floating and sinking.
“It’s in there.” Great-Grandma waved to disperse the light.
An elder in the family was equal to possessing a treasure. This saying was so fucking right. Great-Grandma was experienced and proficient in all kinds of things, which was really a great help.
The cave was two meters wide and three meters tall. There was no trace of artificial digging. Nor was it man-made. It should have been dug by the mouse. There was a rotten, damp smell in the air, which was very unpleasant.
Li Xianyu shone his flashlight on a pair of scarlet pupils. It was a giant rat the size of a buffalo. There were many wounds on his shiny body and its tail was half broken.
When it realized that its territory had been invaded, it straightened up and showed his teeth to the two humans, looking ferociously at them.
“Beat it up,” Great-Grandma said in a crisp voice.
The two of them jumped on it together.
The cave space was not big, which greatly restricted the movement space of the rat spirit. After Great-Grandma avoided the fierce bite of the rat, she floored the huge body of the rat spirit with a kick.
The two of them started to abuse it inhumanely, as the shrieks of the rat spirit came from the cave.
The rat spirit was, in fact, not strong. Li Xianyu estimated that it was almost at the same level as himself. If he really wanted to fight alone, he only needed to avoid its sharp teeth. Then, Li Xianyu could win steadily. Furthermore, Great-Grandma participated in this fight personally.
After fighting for a long time, the rat spirit squeaked and cried out. Its eyes were full of fear, as it pleaded non-stop. Its two short claws were clasped together, as it kept bowing and begging for mercy.
“Great-Grandma, stop for a moment. If not, it will die!” Li Xianyu shouted for her to stop.
Great-Grandma looked at him in a daze and was surprised by his kindness. The purpose of their trip, in addition to expanding Li Xianyu’s knowledge, was to increase the strength of her great-grandson by sucking the essence of the spirits they encountered.
“This fella has walked the path of boiling blood. His animalistic nature is superior to his intelligence. If we spare it, it will cause trouble. It will start to eat people one day if his brain spasms,” Great-Grandma warned.
“I may be overly suspicious, but I think it’s a little strange. Let’s interrogate it first.”
“Can you understand mouse language?”
“I can’t understand it, but some people, no, some mice can understand it.” Li Xianyu took out his mobile phone and dialled the Hui family leader’s number again.
He told the leader about what happened. “It destroyed the ships along the way and caused a lot of losses, but I haven’t figured out its motive so far. I will give it a chance now. If it can give a reasonable explanation, I will let it go and allow it to join your family.”
The leader of the Hui family heard that the rat spirit had the power of a middle-level employee, and appeared keen to recruit. It patted its chest in assurance. “You see, even if a mouse has the trait of boiling blood, it will not hurt people’s lives for no reason. The Hui family is the purest of all. We occasionally come out to take the food that people have forgotten for a long time. We are different from the other four demonic families.”
“Cut the crap.” Li Xianyu turned on the handsfree and put the mobile phone beside the rat spirit’s ear.
In order to prevent it from suddenly turning around and gnawing off her great-grandson’s hand, Great-Grandma stepped on its head.
Hui family leader: “What happened, little brother?”
Rat spirit: “???”
“Squeak!” the Hui family leader exclaimed.
The rat spirit was stunned, as it slowly became agitated. “Squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak!” said the Hui family leader.
Rat spirit: “Squeak, squeak.”
Hui family leader: “Squeak, squeak.”
The two mice squeaked at each other repeatedly. After their conversation finished, the Hui family leader remarked, “This… Master Li, there seems to be a misunderstanding.”
“Cat?” Li Xianyu’s response was a little exaggerated. He looked at Great-Grandma and said, “Great-Grandma, did you hear the cat?”
Great-Grandma nodded in silence.
In the middle of the night, it was not pleasant to hear a cat barking in the wild mountains. In fact, it was a bit eerie.
According to folklore, the cat belonged to the yin category, on the extreme end. It could walk between the yang and the yin. Therefore, it was born with the spirit of yin and evil. If it leapt over the heads of the dead, it would cause the corpse to become a zombie.
“If ordinary people were on the mountain, they would get sick when they hear it,” Li Xianyu murmured, holding a flashlight, and walked out of the temple.
Outside the temple, the wind blew, leaves curled, branches rustled; the whole mountain seemed to be alive. The cat’s voice was hidden in the wind. It appeared far and near, as if it was crying and complaining.
“Wild cat?” Li Xianyu looked a little hesitant. “The demonic winds are intermittent. Don’t tell me it’s the cat god?”
The wind came suddenly. It felt a little demonic. The calls of the cat mingled with the wind. Li Xianyu thought of the scenes in TV dramas. Every time a demon appeared, the winds would be intermittent.
In the demon descendants’ community, he had never seen a foreign species appear like that. However, if it was a coincidence, it would be too much. The moment the cat called, the demonic wind came.
Great-Grandma, who was beside Li Xianyu, looked solemn. She stepped forward, squinted, and looked towards the darkness of the trees. “Mountain God?”
The cat’s voice disappeared. With the sound of branches and leaves, the light of Li Xianyu’s flashlight shone on two shining gems. It was a tawny cat, with tiger-like stripes, strong and slender body. The cat walked very gracefully. In terms of breed, it was a felis catus. In terms of the aura it gave off, it resembled a mountain tiger that lived in the depths of the mountains.
“Cat god?!” Li Xianyu turned around and pointed to the statue in the temple. “You can’t be the cat god in the temple.”
“Ignorant humans,” the felis catus said in disdain. “I am…”
“Fireworks of different colors,” Li Xianyu said.
“Human, don’t interrupt.” The felis catus was very unhappy.
“Ah,” Li Xianyu sneered. “The average lifespan of a cat is 15 years. Even if you are a demon descendant, you can live up to 60 years at maximum. However, this temple was built in 1891, more than 100 years ago. Where are you from, wild cat? You are pretending to be a sage of the same race, bluffing about your authority.”
In this world, apart from dragon salamanders, who had that natural talent, there were no foreign species who could live a thousand years. On the contrary, the lifespan of these foreign species were far lower than that of human demon descendants.
“Ignorant human.” The felis catus snorted and looked up at a 45 degree angle. It couldn’t be more arrogant.
“It’s a mountain god,” Great-Grandma said.
“How could it be?” Li Xianyu looked at her in surprise.
“Haven’t you been to the northeast? You should know that the former gods of Huang, Hui and Mang ate the incense that people offered.”
“So what?”
“Before the emergence of qi training, there was an ancient way of cultivation amongst the demon descendants’ community, that is, devouring the willpower.” Great-Grandma said, “Willpower is also known as spiritual force. It is the spiritual force produced by thousands of people. They will be collected and absorbed by the ‘godly spirits’ to achieve a whole new state. So, in ancient times, people and demons all wanted to ascend to the level of gods.”
“This way of becoming a god has its limitations. It does not increase combat power significantly, far less than how practicing qi could. However, it has a feature. Every god who devoured incense could live forever. In theory, as long as the incense continued to burn, they would last forever.”
These “gods” ate incense and protected everyone’s safety, but their existence was a threat to the imperial court. In order to prevent more and more “gods”, the imperial court dismissed all unrecognized temples as immoral places who housed evil gods.
“In modern times, there are more and more atheists who don’t worship Buddha. The rest of them worship the illusory gods.”
The felis catus stared at Great-Grandma with its blue eyes. “Hmph, little girl, you are knowledgeable.”
It was obviously a cat, but Li Xianyu saw coldness and arrogance in its eyes.
Great-Grandma also sneered arrogantly. “Little girl? I’m older than you.”
“I existed before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.” The felis catus was indignant.
“I was from the later part of the Qing Dynasty.”
The felis catus was shocked and tilted its head, looking at her in surprise.
Li Xianyu coughed and interrupted the two old souls, who looked rather childish.
“Since you are a mountain god, you should know that there is another rat disaster in this town. We came after a rat spirit. Have you seen it?” Li Xianyu asked the cat.
“Why should I tell you?” the felis catus replied, as it looked towards the sky in a 45 degree angle. This cat had such a bad character.
Li Xianyu said, “Isn’t it a cat’s duty to catch mice?”
“Young man, I can give you a chance.” The felis catus’s expression was that of “I’ll be kind,” as it said: “Recently, the people are suffering from the rat disaster. You go back to tell the stupid people at the foot of the mountain to repair the temple and get them to offer incense and worship every year. I will then be kind, and help them get rid of the rats.”
“People are destitute?” Li Xianyu waved repeatedly. “Impossible, impossible. You want them to worship you? I’ll find that rat spirit myself.”
The cat god was enraged. “This is your only chance. Besides myself, who can save the people at the foot of the mountain?”
“We’ll do it ourselves.”
“Well, you have to find it, too.”
“It doesn’t concern you,” Great-Grandma said. Great-Grandma, who felt like she had nothing more to say, took her great-grandson’s hand and walked away.
Li Xianyu finally looked back and saw that the trees were mottled, the temple was broken. The cat god stood in silence, looking at the once brilliant temple, giving off a trace of desolation.
When they were halfway up the mountain, Great-Grandma stopped suddenly and held out her hand. “Give me the tail of the mouse.”
Great-Grandma had cut off part of the rat’s tail in the water. Li Xianyu put it in his wallet. That tail could be used as a piece of important evidence. It was not good to throw it in the field anymore, or it would be on the news the next day.
“There is a Taoist method in Maoshan, which uses someone’s eight characters, hair, nails and other items as the medium to manipulate the target’s words and actions. It can also be used to find people and corpses,” Great-Grandma said.
She picked up a branch, drew a talisman in the soil, pulled her great-grandson towards her and bit on his neck.
Li Xianyu was stunned. The next moment, there was a sharp pain in his neck. The carotid artery had been broken by Great-Grandma, as blood spewed out onto the tail of the mouse and the talisman. After this, Great-Grandma bent her finger and shot out some sparks.
The talisman and rat tail started to burn..
Li Xianyu pressed against his neck wound, aggrieved, as he thought to himself, Fuck. I knew that there would be nothing good.
A few minutes later, the flame gradually extinguished as the tail of the rat turned into ashes. A crimson light rose from the ashes, which drifted into the dense forest.
The two of them followed the light trail through the forest and the stream. In a flash, the light stopped in front of a hidden cave covered by branches and leaves, floating and sinking.
“It’s in there.” Great-Grandma waved to disperse the light.
An elder in the family was equal to possessing a treasure. This saying was so fucking right. Great-Grandma was experienced and proficient in all kinds of things, which was really a great help.
The cave was two meters wide and three meters tall. There was no trace of artificial digging. Nor was it man-made. It should have been dug by the mouse. There was a rotten, damp smell in the air, which was very unpleasant.
Li Xianyu shone his flashlight on a pair of scarlet pupils. It was a giant rat the size of a buffalo. There were many wounds on his shiny body and its tail was half broken.
When it realized that its territory had been invaded, it straightened up and showed his teeth to the two humans, looking ferociously at them.
“Beat it up,” Great-Grandma said in a crisp voice.
The two of them jumped on it together.
The cave space was not big, which greatly restricted the movement space of the rat spirit. After Great-Grandma avoided the fierce bite of the rat, she floored the huge body of the rat spirit with a kick.
The two of them started to abuse it inhumanely, as the shrieks of the rat spirit came from the cave.
The rat spirit was, in fact, not strong. Li Xianyu estimated that it was almost at the same level as himself. If he really wanted to fight alone, he only needed to avoid its sharp teeth. Then, Li Xianyu could win steadily. Furthermore, Great-Grandma participated in this fight personally.
After fighting for a long time, the rat spirit squeaked and cried out. Its eyes were full of fear, as it pleaded non-stop. Its two short claws were clasped together, as it kept bowing and begging for mercy.
“Great-Grandma, stop for a moment. If not, it will die!” Li Xianyu shouted for her to stop.
Great-Grandma looked at him in a daze and was surprised by his kindness. The purpose of their trip, in addition to expanding Li Xianyu’s knowledge, was to increase the strength of her great-grandson by sucking the essence of the spirits they encountered.
“This fella has walked the path of boiling blood. His animalistic nature is superior to his intelligence. If we spare it, it will cause trouble. It will start to eat people one day if his brain spasms,” Great-Grandma warned.
“I may be overly suspicious, but I think it’s a little strange. Let’s interrogate it first.”
“Can you understand mouse language?”
“I can’t understand it, but some people, no, some mice can understand it.” Li Xianyu took out his mobile phone and dialled the Hui family leader’s number again.
He told the leader about what happened. “It destroyed the ships along the way and caused a lot of losses, but I haven’t figured out its motive so far. I will give it a chance now. If it can give a reasonable explanation, I will let it go and allow it to join your family.”
The leader of the Hui family heard that the rat spirit had the power of a middle-level employee, and appeared keen to recruit. It patted its chest in assurance. “You see, even if a mouse has the trait of boiling blood, it will not hurt people’s lives for no reason. The Hui family is the purest of all. We occasionally come out to take the food that people have forgotten for a long time. We are different from the other four demonic families.”
“Cut the crap.” Li Xianyu turned on the handsfree and put the mobile phone beside the rat spirit’s ear.
In order to prevent it from suddenly turning around and gnawing off her great-grandson’s hand, Great-Grandma stepped on its head.
Hui family leader: “What happened, little brother?”
Rat spirit: “???”
“Squeak!” the Hui family leader exclaimed.
The rat spirit was stunned, as it slowly became agitated. “Squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak!” said the Hui family leader.
Rat spirit: “Squeak, squeak.”
Hui family leader: “Squeak, squeak.”
The two mice squeaked at each other repeatedly. After their conversation finished, the Hui family leader remarked, “This… Master Li, there seems to be a misunderstanding.”
