DDT - Chapter 163

Chapter 163: Immortal Venerable × Meow Meow Cat (18)

Upon hearing the mission squad leader's report on the series of events from a few hours prior, and seeing the palpable fear among the squad members, Immortal Venerable Qingyun, as a guardian elder of the Xianyuan Sect, could not simply abandon these twenty-odd disciples in this perilous ancient forest. She decided to first escort them safely to the central city of the Southern Xuan Kingdom. Immortal Venerable Qingyun carried her little disciple's identity token from the Xianyuan Sect. She had originally planned to give it to her little disciple only after her strength reached the fifth layer of the Foundation Establishment stage. She never expected the child to be so impatient—or perhaps to have some ulterior secret—and run out of the Xianyuan Sect so early, her whereabouts now unknown. Immortal Venerable Qingyun took the lead, flying on her sword. She retrieved Chi Junluo's disciple identity token from her storage bag. Bright green spiritual energy flowed freely within it. The token was perfectly intact, which meant that Chi Junluo was not in any grave danger, at least her life was not threatened.

After carefully confirming that the identity token was undamaged, Immortal Venerable Qingyun cautiously returned the glowing green token to her storage bag. With the protection of an elder, the disciples in the mission squad behind her visibly relaxed. At least until they reached their destination, they no longer had to live with their lives on the line.

The remaining journey was neither long nor short. Immortal Venerable Qingyun deliberately slowed her pace so the disciples could keep up. Along the way, she unleashed the full might of her Nascent Soul stage cultivation, causing ordinary spirit beasts to flee from a great distance. They would likely reach the central city of the Southern Xuan Kingdom by dusk.

As the sky gradually darkened, the group arrived safely at a post station twenty li outside the central city. Because this was a silver-patterned mission from the Yin Scroll, Immortal Venerable Qingyun's presence was too conspicuous for her to continue with them. She parted ways with the disciples outside the post station.

After regrouping at the station, the disciples immediately hurried toward the central city to continue their mission.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun, naturally, was worried about her little disciple venturing into this ancient, dense, and dangerous forest. Without even taking a moment to rest, she began searching for her that very night within the ancient woods of the Southern Xuan Kingdom.

Chi Junluo, of course, knew that her dear heroine would be worried and would search the ancient forest for any trace of her. Therefore, she only stayed at the hot spring for two or three hours before getting up and leaping out. A cleansing spell removed the excess water from her body. She turned to groom her dark fur, then set off with a cheerful, bouncing gait, changing her location.

The six-horned spirit beast guarding the hot spring only sensed Chi Junluo's departure from afar. It trembled as it hurried back to the spring and plopped in with a splash, relaxing its previously tense and stiff body. The spirit beast happily blew bubbles in the water, celebrating the departure of that great deity.

The ancient forest of the Southern Xuan Kingdom was ancient and vast, home to no small number of Heaven-rank spirit beasts who had carved out their own territories. Many of these Heaven-rank beasts could even take human form, their strength comparable to Immortal Venerable Qingyun's. Every time Qingyun entered the territory of one of these beasts, she had to restrain her aura and show no aggressive intent. After all, a direct confrontation would benefit neither side. Thus, as long as Immortal Venerable Qingyun did nothing too outrageous upon entering their domains, these territorial lords would often turn a blind eye, unwilling to start unnecessary conflicts with a human of equal strength.

After so many worlds, Chi Junluo had always been either completing missions or on her way to complete them. She rarely had the chance to roam and play so freely in such a pure and dense ancient forest. The lush green scenery, the occasional rare ancient ruins, and the vibrant, non-aggressive little spirit beasts brought her a sense of relaxation and joy she had never experienced before. With the Heavenly Dao as her infallible radar, Chi Junluo could always evade Immortal Venerable Qingyun just as she was about to close in.

As a result, Immortal Venerable Qingyun would occasionally find traces of her little disciple, but by the time she arrived, the place would either be empty or she would only find a trembling spirit beast left behind.

The first couple of times, Immortal Venerable Qingyun could still make excuses for her little disciple, thinking she might have been captured by a powerful spirit beast. But as it happened more and more, she could no longer deceive herself. It was clear to her now that her little disciple was deliberately avoiding her. Moreover, she, a mighty Nascent Soul stage expert, couldn't even catch up to a Qi Refining stage disciple. Who would believe such a thing if it got out?

Therefore, Immortal Venerable Qingyun became even more certain that her little disciple was hiding a huge secret from her. Coupled with the recent instability of the seal on the passage from the Demon Realm to the Nine Nether Profound Sky, the unease in her heart grew stronger.

What exactly she was uneasy about was a complex matter that only Immortal Venerable Qingyun herself knew.

It felt like she was always losing things. This time, she didn't want to let go again.

Chi Junluo happily played in the ancient forest for several days. But before she could fully enjoy her boundless freedom and happiness, the night of the full moon arrived.

As the evening glow gradually melted into the night sky, a perfectly round, jade-like moon climbed into the heavens. The unique lunar spiritual energy of the full moon surged down, blanketing the entire Nine Nether Profound Sky. The ancient forest of the Southern Xuan Kingdom was also bathed in its light. In the northwestern part of the forest, on an exposed cliff, Chi Junluo lay peacefully on a massive rock. With no trees to obstruct the view and no other spirit beasts to interfere, her entire slender cat body was enveloped in the bright lunar spiritual energy. Her four enormous tails swayed with the fluctuations of the energy. Just like last time, but even more intense, the lunar spiritual energy from the entire southeastern part of the Nine Nether Profound Sky rushed madly toward the cliff where Chi Junluo was.

The immense energy waves created by the lunar spiritual energy surging through the ancient forest were comparable to a top-tier hurricane. The weaker spirit beasts had no intention of competing for this bountiful feast of lunar energy. Even from half a forest away, they could feel the oppressive aura emanating from Chi Junluo's ancient Nine-Tailed Cat God bloodline. They couldn't get away fast enough, curling up deep underground, unwilling to risk their lives by showing themselves.

The last time Chi Junluo bathed in the moonlight at the foot of Qingyun Peak, her power had not yet recovered, which created the illusion of a rare treasure appearing and attracted hordes of crazed spirit beasts. This time was different. Under the restorative power of the lunar spiritual energy, her other five tails, which represented absolute strength, began to appear as faint apparitions behind her. As her body absorbed more and more of the dense lunar energy, the tails behind her solidified from ethereal to real. In just half an hour, Chi Junluo's strength had returned to its peak. Her cat form stood steadily within the massive vortex of lunar spiritual energy, her nine fluffy tails flying wantonly. Her body had grown several times larger, and white, streamlined patterns of light shimmered on her slender form. The silver fur on the tips of her nine fluffy tails pulsed with the moon's brilliant spiritual energy. Her silver-white ears twitched nimbly a few times. With a thought, Chi Junluo conjured a huge ice mirror before her. She turned before the mirror, examining herself, quite pleased with her elegant posture. Having absorbed enough lunar spiritual energy, the vortex surrounding her gradually shrank, and the energy no longer converged on her.

The surrounding wind gradually calmed. Chi Junluo elegantly turned her head to groom her fur. The spiritual energy maintaining the mirror suddenly dissipated, and the huge ice mirror shattered into specks of starlight that vanished into the air. Chi Junluo sensed something, glanced toward the southeast, and then quickly leaped a few times across the cliff, disappearing over the edge.

Previously, the vortex of spiritual energy on the cliff had been too immense. Even with Immortal Venerable Qingyun's late-stage Nascent Soul cultivation, she couldn't get close. She could only wait quietly outside the vortex. She didn't know what was happening at its center, but it was clear that the trail of her little disciple led directly toward it. During the time the vortex of lunar spiritual energy was forming, Immortal Venerable Qingyun had tightly gripped Chi Junluo's disciple identity token. Seeing the spiritual energy still flowing freely on the token, without a single imagined crack appearing, she finally breathed a sigh of relief when the vortex dissipated. By the time she arrived, the cliff was just a cliff, and the precipice was just a precipice, with a bottomless abyss below. Even with Immortal Venerable Qingyun's strength, descending safely was not guaranteed. She temporarily abandoned the idea of pursuing her disciple downward and turned back. She had planned to search the ancient forest of the Southern Xuan Kingdom for a few more days, but a moment later, she received a distress signal from the disciples stationed there. Due to the overly abundant lunar spiritual energy, the seal on the passage from the Demon Realm to the Nine Nether Profound Sky was on the verge of collapse. In fact, large cracks had already appeared, and quite a few demons had already slipped through. The situation in the Southern Xuan Kingdom had suddenly become urgent. As the only Xianyuan Sect elder within the kingdom's borders, Immortal Venerable Qingyun had to take on the great responsibility of repairing the seal.

As Immortal Venerable Qingyun rushed toward the cracked seal, she thought about how she couldn't search for her little disciple for the time being. She squeezed the disciple identity token still in her palm, silently praying that her little disciple would not have any connection or contact with the Demon Realm.

At the bottom of the cliff, Chi Junluo sensed her heroine's hasty departure. She nimbly used the cliff face to leap upward, soon returning to the rock she had been on. Right now, Chi Junluo felt her body brimming with spiritual energy, but she didn't know what stage her strength was at. The ever-present tool, the Heavenly Dao, came in handy at this moment.

Observing the now cat-like Chi Junluo, the Heavenly Dao did a quick scan of her body's power. As expected of the Nine-Tailed Cat Clan, with their ancient divine beast bloodline and Myriad Spirit Root. All nine tails had recovered their strength and had even swelled with power. Chi Junluo's current body had reached the ninth layer of the Tribulation Crossing stage. The Heavenly Dao clutched its startled little heart and urged Chi Junluo to quickly stabilize her spiritual power at the ninth layer. The full moon night was not over yet. If Chi Junluo didn't control her absorption of lunar spiritual energy and accidentally broke through the ninth layer to reach the Great Perfection stage, things would get troublesome.

Following the method provided by the Heavenly Dao, Chi Junluo stabilized the surging spiritual energy in her body at the ninth layer of the Tribulation Crossing stage, stopping her body's absorption of lunar energy. Only after completing this series of actions at the Heavenly Dao's urging did she learn the reason why.

In this world, once a cultivator's strength reached the Great Perfection of the Tribulation Crossing stage, it would trigger the ascension lightning tribulation. This world was a high-level cultivation world, and its direct Upper Realm for ascension was the God Realm, which was currently being contested by various gods—the God Realm that had lost the Main God's control. Considering Chi Junluo's identity, and thinking about the truths he had discovered and was close to discovering in the God Realm, he understood that if Chi Junluo ascended to the God Realm now, it would surely be a tragedy. The kind of tragedy where her divine soul would be shattered, her godhood lost, and she could never be revived.

Fortunately, the spiritual energy in Chi Junluo's current body had stabilized. The Heavenly Dao thought to itself that his dear heroine's soul fragments had not been fully contracted yet. They couldn't let all their efforts go to waste by having Chi Junluo ascend in this world.

Considering all factors, the current situation was the best possible choice.

The Heavenly Dao did not analyze the deeper reasons with Chi Junluo. In her current state, she was not yet suited to understand such complex information.

The Heavenly Dao recalled the Chaos Beast that Chi Junluo had subdued on Qingyun Peak. A thought occurred to him that perhaps some things were not as simple as they appeared on the surface. The Chaos Beast had always been under the command of the Void God. Perhaps that Chaos Beast hadn't just accidentally wandered into this world. Maybe the Void God had left a clone or a secret treasure in this world…

But all of this was just speculation. For now, he just needed to protect Chi Junluo and his dear heroine. The rest of his conjectures could only be verified the next time he went to the God Realm.

Now that Chi Junluo had regained all the power of this body, the corresponding fragmented memories had also returned in their entirety.

The experiences of the past two thousand years, from the extermination of the Nine-Tailed Cat Clan to the chance at life that the Third Elder had sacrificed himself for, replayed one by one in Chi Junluo's mind. How the original owner had evaded pursuit, how she had stumbled and grown in the human world, and even the deception and coercion she had suffered after the unique traits of the Nine-Tailed Cat Clan were discovered—just browsing through these memories made Chi Junluo's heart ache.

She also finally understood why the original owner had been hunted by human cultivators, why she had lost most of her cultivation, and why she had ultimately been reduced to the form of a seven or eight-year-old child.

The enmity between the original owner and the cultivator named Old Ghost was now laid bare.

When the original owner was still living in the mortal realm in her nine-tailed cat form, because her entire clan had been annihilated by cultivators in white clothes during her youth, this body had developed a severe psychological trauma toward white clothing. The sight of it would trigger uncontrollable fear and a desire to attack and destroy. As a result, while living in the mortal realm, she was constantly involved in conflicts with cultivators or humans dressed in white.

Later, the original owner grew wiser and hid deep within the ancient forests, far from people. However, as her cultivation grew and more tails became visible, she once again became a focus of attention for human cultivators.

After being hunted and besieged by human cultivators multiple times, she finally learned the reason for her persecution from a lone human she captured. A legend circulated in the mortal realm about an ancient clan of Nine-Tailed Cat Demons. They possessed nine tails and nine lives, and each tail was said to hold a heaven-defying ability. Some said each tail was a celestial treasure. There were even wilder rumors that possessing a Nine-Tailed Cat Demon was equivalent to having nine wishes granted—that one could have anything they desired.

Upon hearing this, the original owner felt nothing but sheer fury—both at the term "Nine-Tailed Cat Demon," which demonized her divine beast clan, and at the strange and bizarre powers attributed to her nine tails.

Therefore, the original owner began to learn how to hide her other eight tails. She even started to learn how to take human form, trying her best to integrate into ordinary mortal life. She hoped this would allow her to escape the endless pursuit.

Things were peaceful for several hundred years until the appearance of that cultivator named Old Ghost. Old Ghost was considered a top-tier expert among human cultivators. A Spirit Transformation stage cultivator was already akin to a god in the mortal realm. No one knew Old Ghost's real name or his lineage; they only knew he was a rogue cultivator. But the original owner, who had been injured by the Spirit Transformation stage Old Ghost, knew that he was also a half-demon cultivator.

The original owner, whose cultivation was originally stronger than Old Ghost's, was ambushed by him and imprisoned by an ancient Soul Refining Forbidden Curse. Two of her souls and one of her spirits were refined, and she nearly became a top-grade material for Old Ghost's ascension and a puppet under his control.

The original owner had to detonate her own soul to seize a sliver of a chance at survival from Old Ghost's grasp. Her cultivation regressed drastically, and she ultimately reverted to the form of a human child before being found by Immortal Venerable Qingyun of the Xianyuan Sect.

And Old Ghost, having refined most of the cultivation of the sole descendant of the Nine-Tailed Cat Clan, directly reached the half-step Great Perfection stage of Tribulation Crossing. He was just one step away from ascending to the God Realm.

Chi Junluo was immersed in the original owner's vast memories for a long time before she came back to her senses.

With the original owner's memories, the world's main plotline was finally clear.

Chi Junluo didn't believe that Old Ghost, who was on the verge of ascension, would give up on capturing the escaped Nine-Tailed Cat. This Old Ghost had stolen most of the original owner's cultivation, and his half-step Great Perfection of the Tribulation Crossing stage was even a bit higher than her own ninth layer of the Tribulation Crossing stage.

Chi Junluo could foresee that Old Ghost would come looking for her sooner or later. However, the cultivation Old Ghost had stolen from others was ultimately superficial, lacking a solid foundation. If they were to truly face off, Chi Junluo still felt she had an absolute chance of winning. After all, Old Ghost had thoroughly studied the original owner's habits and behaviors, but she was not the original owner. Her only weakness, the fear of white clothes, had already been cured with the help of her heroine.

But before that Old Ghost came looking for her, perhaps she should go and have a tender moment with her heroine. In this world, Chi Junluo and her heroine had been apart more than they were together. To be honest, Chi Junluo missed her Yi Shuhan.

An overwhelming pressure from her powerful bloodline and cultivation surged forth. The six-legged spirit beast sleeping by the hot spring instantly leaped up in fright and fled far away. A large, silver-patterned black cat strode gracefully to the edge of the steaming hot spring. Specks of silver-white light swirled around the black cat, and the massive beast form vanished, replaced by the curvaceous body of a human female.

Chi Junluo lowered her head slightly to look at her reflection in the hot spring's surface. It was still that face, about eighty percent similar to her own, with long, straight golden hair. There were two new golden vertical lines on her forehead. She was tall, over 1.75 meters, with a slender figure, perky breasts, a slender waist, and long, straight legs. She nodded in satisfaction. The human body this form transformed into was indeed perfect. Chi Junluo gently caressed the several beautiful golden patterns on her left wrist. Perhaps thanks to her cat clan heritage, her face was even more stunning than in previous worlds. The corners of her lips curved into a smile.

Appearing before her heroine like this would definitely raise questions about her identity. She recalled her heroine's peculiar habit in this world of picking up bleeding human children. She wondered if her heroine would also take pity and pick up a pathetic-looking cub of another species.

After all, people have their guards up, but most have no defense against a harmless, pitiful little cub.

How interesting.

The enchanting woman by the hot spring chuckled softly, and a silver-white light once again shone around her.

A small black kitten appeared where the woman had been standing.

The kitten looked as if its eyes had just opened. It had a tuft of silver-white fur on the tips of its ears, and the tip of its short, thin tail was also silver-white. It looked very beautiful.

The tiny, adorable kitten began to move, but it darted through the ancient forest at a speed unattainable by ordinary spirit beasts. The little cat sped toward the vicinity of the seal where Immortal Venerable Qingyun was.

About twenty or thirty li away, Chi Junluo created traces of a spirit beast fight in the surrounding woods. She took some previously stored spirit beast fur and blood from her storage ring and scattered them on the ground. After everything was prepared, the little cat found a spot to curl up in at the base of a large tree. With a thought, she drenched her entire kitten body. Two streams of spiritual energy condensed in the air and struck her own legs fiercely. With two cracking sounds, new wounds appeared on her two hind legs. Fresh blood flowed out and gradually coagulated. Chi Junluo made herself look utterly wretched. She conjured an ice mirror to confirm that her whole cat self looked pitiful enough, then she lay down on the ground to rest. This was a necessary path back from the seal to the Southern Xuan Kingdom. By waiting here, she would eventually run into the returning Immortal Venerable Qingyun. Even if her heroine's eyes were poor and she didn't spot this poor little kitten, at worst, she would just move to another spot where Immortal Venerable Qingyun was likely to pass and wait.

She would get picked up eventually.

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