Li Qingshan keenly perceived his strange appearance. He asked, “Little An, what’s wrong?”
Little An only shook his head in confusion.
Li Qingshan became relieved then. “Alright, Halfmoon, now tell me why you won’t go to the Dragon province by yourself. I’ll just be a burden if you drag me along!”
“Call meow mistress! I’m being chased, I have to pull wool over their eyes.”
“You also have no sense of direction.” Of course Li Qingshan couldn’t say that. This answer wasn’t outside of his expectations. As someone who could order Gu Yanying to find her cat, Halfmoon’s mistress concubine Serenity’s influence was certainly extremely great. The manpower she’d mobilized was definitely not limited to Gu Yanying alone. But since it was about finding a pet and not catching a criminal, this task looked rather safe, and even failure wouldn’t lead him on the road toward death. Also, it was impossible this cat didn’t have some confidence since she dared to escape to begin with. It was worth a gamble in short.
Li Qingshan said straightforwardly, “No problem, Halfmoon. However I feel we still better temporarily cultivate first, and decide on a surefire plan before setting out.” He had a rather deep impression of Gu Yanying’s fearsome senses. There was no telling if she would look down from the sky at any moment, and she may well just eradicate demons in the name of righteousness since his appearance had presently become like this.
The veins on Halfmoon’s forehead bulged. “I said it’s mistress!”
“Is that right, Halfmoon?”
“Meow!!!” Halfmoon’s tail stood up straight as she finally erupted.
Li Qingshan grabbed Little An who was about to retaliate, and just allowed her to kick and hit him. He merely clenched his teeth without ever loosening them. He found out that her strength wasn’t very great even if her speed was fast without compare. He could still endure those fists and feet.
Halfmoon vented recklessly for a while, but she didn’t bear to use a heavy hand either. There were still many things she had to rely on Li Qingshan for after all. She made a cold face and said, “Follow me!” She led Li Qingshan back to the front of that great waterfall, then she pulled Li Qingshan and charged inside.
She went through the water curtains and crashed toward the mountain wall. That thick wall of rocks proved to be merely a layer of illusion right when Li Qingshan was about to collide with the mountain. They directly went through.
Inside was a completely different world, a great and wide immortal cave. It’d been dug out only recently judging by the chiseling traces on the stone. It seemed she had been hiding there during this time.
The place the green bull had selected for Li Qingshan’s cultivation was indeed a scenic spot.
Halfmoon took out a small flag from inside her little bell. Her cat bell actually turned out to be a storage bag.
Are you Doraemon? Li Qingshan stared. Spiritual light also flowed around the little flag with understated magnificence. It was clearly an exceedingly rare spiritual device.
Halfmoon inserted the flag in the doorway with a tinkle, tightly sealing the cave abode at once. Not one shred of spiritual qi or monster qi could flow out and be exposed.
Then she also took out miscellaneous items of every color from the bell. First she spread out a thick carpet weaved from some unknown animal’s fur, then she set up a small table, and then she put delicate tableware on it, made from either ivory or jade.
They were clearly all creatures with the ability to see in the dark, but she still took out a lampstand. There wasn’t a flame at the top of the lampstand, but a precious pearl big as a fist radiating a misty light. It shone a clear brightness inside the cave, but it was unexpectedly not the least harsh on the eye.
She finally took out an incense burner shaped like a red-crowned crane that slowly released a strange fragrance.
None of those things didn’t glow with spiritual light. The spiritual qi inside his body even sped up a little when the light of that treasure pearl shone on it, while his whole person felt refreshed when smelling the strange fragrance. Even his soul and spirit were much calmer and clearer.
None of those things could be measured with thousand or ten thousand pounds of gold. How was she a pet, she was simply a princess. Fancy that a runaway like her could actually have reached such a degree of preparation. It was truly too extravagant.
Halfmoon sat on the thick carpet and fished out a thick piece of fish meat white as snow. “Meal’s ready!” She didn’t even use the exquisite tableware but directly used her hands, burying her head in the food and eating in big mouthfuls.
Li Qingshan was dumbfounded as he watched. Even that fish meat glowed with spiritual light.
Halfmoon threw him a glance. She thought that she was also very willful in front of her own mistress, but the mistress would always be very tolerant. She felt that she should learn from it as one who’d already risen to the status of a mistress herself. She reservedly said, “Big Black, you can eat that!” She felt another burst of self-satisfaction inside at her magnanimous forgiving of Li Qingshan’s willfulness.
Big Black? Will I ever have a decent name? This was what Li Qingshan was thinking, but he didn’t want to expose his real name either with his present appearance. Big Black it was then! He caught a piece of meat and also started to eat.
He couldn’t stop anymore as soon as he started eating. This fish meat’s taste was utterly delicious even though it hadn’t gone through any cooking, melting in the mouth. It absolutely exceeded any delicacy he’d ever eaten. Moreover, his monster qi also slowly grew when he ate it down into his belly. It had the same effects as spiritual medicines.
He hadn’t felt very full before even after swallowing a deer down, but his belly felt swollen after eating a mere piece of fish meat. “What kind of person is that lady concubine Serenity in the end, was she not good to you?”
Halfmoon first looked at him with scornful eyes, then said with an incomparably respectful expression, “There’s no one in this world who treats Meownie better than lady concubine Serenity. She’s beautiful noble and powerful. I couldn’t even be regarded as a meowster when I first came to her side. She’s the one who gave me meowny meowny spiritual pills to eat.”
“And you’re still running away?”
“Don’t interrupt me!” Halfmoon glared at Li Qingshan in annoyance, her increasingly big eyes enough to scare people. She propped her cheeks in her palms and said, “Ah but, that person is too clingy. She has to hug me all day long. She doesn’t even let go when sleeping. You tell me, could you bear that?”
Li Qingshan thought: If that concubine is really as noble and beautiful as she said, he would simply be too happy to oblige. Then he gave Halfmoon another once-over. I could accept it even with your looks.
“Whatever, you won’t understand even if I tell you. I see you have a bit of intelligence and you’re not as silly as those ordinary monster beasts, but you still can’t empathize with such deep and complex feelings. Freedom, do you understand the meaning of this word?”
Halfmoon talked as if to herself without paying attention to anything else, seemingly not waiting for any answer from Li Qingshan to begin with. Her two cat ears twitched and twitched.
Li Qingshan still ended up obtaining the information he was looking for amidst a bunch laments brimming with narcissism. In the whole of the Verdant province, the only ones with the qualifications of being called concubine were the Verdant province governor’s wives, the concubines of king Chu Lie.
The Verdant governor’s power covered those thirty thousand miles across the Verdant province. Halfmoon had run away from the province capital so she could only flee to other provinces.
Li Qingshan thought back to the Verdant province’s map. “The province capital is on the southern part. Why didn’t you head south but came north instead?”
Halfmoon said, “What do you know, the Foggy province to the south is a desolate land, do you want me to go there and starve with only the northwest wind to drink? The Dragon province, now that’s a good place, that’s where the imperial court is. There’s halls and pavilions a country bumpkin meowster like you can’t even imagine, brocade garments and jade meals.”
Li Qingshan said, “They won’t give them to you even if they have those things there.” Do you think you’re a panda and can survive in the world just by acting cute?
Halfmoon said, “What the meow do you understand. I’m going to seek shelter with the nine-tailed fox empress. She’s the leader of meowster kings everywhere, beautiful noble and strong…”