The Aloof Master Relies on This Cat's Kisses to Survive - Chapter 1

Crooked Ways!

The night was cool and damp.

There were few pedestrians on the street. A lantern on a small stall was brushed by a stray wind, swaying until the trinkets on the table cast overlapping shadows.

The stall owner looked up and blinked, only to find someone suddenly standing before the stall. The swaying lantern light flickered across the person’s face, lending a hint of eerie mystery to that palm-sized visage.

“Have a look, traveler,” the owner greeted with a forced smile.

Business wasn’t good tonight—or rather, business hadn’t been good for several days.

“I have no money.” The small head standing before the stall tilted slightly.

The lantern stopped swaying. The owner took another look at the guest and realized she possessed an exceptionally beautiful appearance.

Large eyes, a high bridge of the nose, and a small mouth—the kind of beauty found only in storybooks.

The guest’s hair was styled in two ox-horn braids, adorned with one red and one white pearl flower. Her clothing was exquisite; one side of her short coat featured gold-thread embroidery, while the other was silver—not something an ordinary person could afford.

This guest likely just hadn’t brought money; it wasn’t that she didn’t have any.

The stall owner reached out and handed her a few candies. “Then have some candy. I haven’t had much income today either. If the weather gets any colder, I won’t come out to set up the stall anymore. Look, many people on the street aren’t coming out.”

“Why?” The guest took the candy, peeled it, and ate.

“Because Lingshan has opened,” the owner said, shaking her head. “I heard things will become unsettled. My neighbor’s sister is in the city defense squad; she says monsters more troublesome than ‘Nian Yao’ (Thought-Demons) will come out. There might even be a curfew later.”

“What is there to fear from a Nian Yao?” The guest chewed the candy, using the wrapper to fold an exquisite pattern before handing it back to the owner. “Here, pick one.”

In her open palm, besides the folded paper pattern, was a pearl flower she had casually plucked from her own hair.

The stall owner was confused. “Eh? I’ll take this… but what is it?”

A few candies weren’t worth such a precious pearl flower. The owner wasn’t greedy and took the small handmade paper craft.

The candy wrapper wasn’t made of high-quality material and tore easily, yet the guest had folded it carefully so that it could stand in the palm, forming a pointed shape.

“Whiskers. Mine,” the guest said.

The stall owner only laughed. The guest’s face was clean and fair; where would she have whiskers?

“Thank you for the candy. When I have money, I’ll come buy this.” The guest pointed to a small hairpin on the table.

The owner’s gaze followed the movement downward, failing to see the guest’s eyes change in an instant, shifting like the rotation of the sun and moon.

That small, delicate mouth curled into a smile, and a look of delight colored her cheeks: “Heh, she’s awake.”

“What?” the owner looked up.

The strange and cute guest continued to smile: “It’s going to rain. You should go back.”

The owner froze—not because of the guest’s words, but because after hearing that advice, she merely blinked, and the guest vanished into thin air.

The night wind rose again, the moisture growing heavier; it truly seemed like it was about to rain.

A few more stalls on the street were packed away. Beyond the distant Lingshan, the Xuanling Sect—which stood between the town and the mountains—rang its night-rest bell.

A lithe figure leaped onto the eaves. The ox-horn braid that had lost its pearl flower loosened slightly at the end, but Ming Xi didn’t care.

Master is awake. Master must want to see me as soon as she wakes up!

The wind by her ears swept past along with the fragrance of flowers, diving into the twilight ahead. It slipped into the corridors of the Xuanling Sect and blew into a courtyard in the southeast corner.

A murmur came from the inner bedroom behind closed doors. A woman in a mist-blue thin robe lay upon the bed-hangings.

She seemed haunted by a nightmare, eyes tightly shut, brows slightly furrowed, her forehead covered in a fine layer of sweat.

The fabric of her robe was rubbed open slightly, revealing skin as white as frost or snow—a sight of budding spring.

Soon, the woman on the couch broke free from the dream’s disturbance, opened her eyes, and sat up.

She possessed a face of peerless, world-shaking beauty; her features were austere and grand, appearing completely detached from the world. Yet, her cheeks retained a flush brought out from the dream, and her eyes were misted with lingering confusion, looking like an autumn hibiscus accidentally stained by the spring breeze.

This was the founding Immortal Ancestor of the Xuanling Sect: Ancestor Ji Wu.

The windows in the room were originally tightly shut, but at some point, they had opened.

Through the window facing the bed-hangings, the night outside was visible. After Ji Wu regulated her breathing, she lifted her gaze. The bright moon that had just entered her view was suddenly obscured by a black shadow.

A head hung down upside down, followed by a loosened braid, and finally, a fluffy, two-toned tail.

And a high-spirited shout: “Master!”

The guest who had been eating candy at the stall just moments ago grabbed the window beam. With a kick of her hind legs, she performed a fancy mid-air spin. Her body, clad in the two-toned coat, slid forward and pounced toward Ji Wu’s bedside, crouching down as she landed.

Two fair, tender hands were stacked in front of the couch. The head with one loosened ox-horn leaned forward, and Ming Xi’s chin rested lightly on the back of her hands. She looked up at Ji Wu and called out again in a cat-like manner, “Master~ Ming Xi is here.”

“I told you not to come again!” Ji Wu turned her face away, unwilling to look at her, her tone chillingly cold.

Yet Ming Xi was not only unafraid, she leaned closer. “Master left so quickly, I couldn’t even keep you. The elders said Master’s body is depleted and needs Ming Xi to supplement it. How can Master leave?”

“I don’t need it,” Ji Wu said sharply, raising her hand to pull the quilt back, unwilling to let the other touch even a bit.

Ming Xi furrowed her brows, looking utterly aggrieved. Her large eyes were dark and bright; with one flutter of her lashes, tears seemed ready to fall.

She leaped up and stepped onto the couch, sitting cross-legged. “That’s not what Master said in the dream.”

“Stop talking nonsense!” Ji Wu’s brows sharpened. “The matter between you and me is not what you think. You weren’t like this before. Since you’ve forgotten, do not entangle yourself further. As long as you do no evil in the future, we need not meet again.”

Indeed, despite Ming Xi’s innocent and cute appearance, her connection with Ji Wu could be traced back several hundred years. Back then, Ming Xi was anything but innocent.

To Ji Wu, Ming Xi was a wild, rebellious beast that had brought chaos to the world.

She was neither demon nor ghost, born of heaven and earth. She guarded the Lingshan behind the Xuanling Sect and loved to stir up trouble for fun.

Ji Wu had clashed with her many times without a clear winner. Finally, her maternal clan, the Dongfang family, set a trap. They successfully lured the beast into a pit, allowing Ji Wu to gain the upper hand. Unexpectedly, Ming Xi fought back desperately at the moment of her execution, forcing a contract upon Ji Wu to bind their lives together.

The Ancestor had no choice but to trap the rebellious beast in the mountains to sleep, using the Dongfang family’s Dream-Building Array to suppress her. Eight years had passed since then.

Now, there was no way to delay it further. After all, Ming Xi was naturally skilled in dream techniques. Over these eight years, Ji Wu’s cultivation had suffered greatly, while Ming Xi had improved daily. Upon waking, she put Ji Wu in immediate peril!

Fortunately, for some reason, this beast woke up not remembering who she was. She had forgotten their past conflicts entirely. Not only did she not find trouble with Ji Wu, she even started calling her “Master.”

The elders of the Dongfang clan took the opportunity to deceive her, claiming Ming Xi was originally Ji Wu’s domestic guardian beast, and that since Ji Wu was now physically weak, Ming Xi needed to care for her in every way.

“Need not meet again? That won’t do! The elders said Master’s body reacts to the phases of the moon and cannot be repaired by ordinary Taoist methods. Only Ming Xi can nourish Master.”

The creature wagged her tail as she knelt on the bed, leaning forward again. “However, Master, what can be gained in a dream is ultimately limited. Why doesn’t Ming Xi comfort Master right here?”

The scent on this small beast was truly strange; beneath a clear sweetness lingered a natural spicy fragrance. Just a single stray wisp brushing past Ji Wu’s breath caused her to inexplicably remember the images from the dream.

Intertwined fingers, soft cheeks rubbing against the crook of the neck, palms pressed against cream-white skin…

It was tea spilling over the rim of a cup, full to overflowing. It was snow piling on pine needles, then trembling and falling away…

It was voice after voice saying, “Master, would you like to taste a bit more?”

“Shameless!” Ji Wu closed her eyes to regulate her breathing again, her expression cold and stern. Yet the corners of her eyes were still flushed. With her eyes closed and lashes lowered, she looked no different from the way she had looked in the dream—spread out upon soft fur, having lost her defenses.

It made Ming Xi’s heart itch.

She tilted her head, still approaching instead of retreating. “What is ‘shame’? Master and Ming Xi are close and warm; you can feel bashful, but why feel shame? Seeking pleasure is human nature. You and I are in a contracted relationship; there is no need for shame, just indulgence.”

As if saying such face-reddening words weren’t enough, Ming Xi reached out and picked up a strand of Ji Wu’s black hair. “Why doesn’t Master—”

“—You rogue, be quiet.” Ji Wu could find no peace. She opened her eyes and glared at her.

The glare of a beauty naturally had its own charm. Ming Xi found Ji Wu’s glare amusing and wasn’t annoyed at all. “Why doesn’t Master wear flowers?”

“What use are flowers?” Ji Wu gathered her hair together. “The Xuanling Sect slays demons and ghosts; we only need to be crisp and efficient. All adornments are kept simple.”

Though she said this, it wasn’t an official rule. It was simply that the Ancestor was this way, so the disciples followed suit.

“Flowers are pretty,” Ming Xi touched her own braid. “My flower fell off. Does Master know how to pin it back?”

She had pulled out the pearl flower to trade for candy earlier, and since the owner didn’t want it, she didn’t know how to poke it back in. “Human hands are so inconvenient… ah, then again, they are quite flexible at certain times.”

At certain times?

Ji Wu let out a cold snort. An indefinable heat rose within her. Unwilling to let it show on her face, she merely knit her brows and coldly refused, “Leave quickly.”

Seeing her cold behavior, Ming Xi truly couldn’t understand. Humans were so strange; they were always different inside and outside of dreams.

“Master has no scent in the dream, but you are very fragrant now. Let Ming Xi recognize it.” As she spoke, her small hands pressed against the quilt a few times, her large tail tapping lightly behind her.

“Do not call me ‘Master’ so carelessly.” Ji Wu pulled back the part of the quilt Ming Xi was pressing. “You must know your place in word and deed. No frivolity or disrespect!”

Frivolity… disrespect?

Ming Xi tried hard to rummage through her mind. Her memories were currently a mess; all she could find were fragments of dreams she had seen before.

There was everything in there. Ming Xi finally found a few words that sounded more serious and read them out earnestly, “Ah, then how about ‘Beloved Wife’? Or ‘Head of the House’? But that isn’t intimate at all… Oh, Baby? Darling? Sweet—”

“Enough of your impudence!” Ji Wu was truly angered. This rebellious beast was indeed untamable even without her memories. “I am going to rest. Leave at once.”

Ji Wu tidied her inner garment and accidentally caught sight of several pinkish marks on her forearm, faintly resembling claw marks.

How could the entanglements from the dream… This was truly absurd!

Seeing her looking at the marks, Ming Xi smiled with a bit of pride. “Ming Xi is a Dream Beast. There is no difference between the Dream Court and the waking world to me. Master had better get used to it soon. After all, as the moon waxes, Master will only need Ming Xi’s comfort more and more.”

Ji Wu closed her eyes while still dressed. “Crooked ways!”

“Hm! Then next time I create a dream, how about we try ‘The Taoist and the Evil—'”

“Leave!” Ji Wu didn’t want to hear a single word from Ming Xi regarding dream-building. This beast’s head was full of delusional thoughts—painters and their brushes, mountain gods and leaves… all of them bizarre stories!

Yet Ji Wu was currently weak and restricted by the contract. Once she entered the dream, she found it difficult to maintain control. It was truly a loss of decorum!

“I’m not leaving, I’m not leaving. Master, go ahead and rest. I will watch over you.” Ming Xi wasn’t in a hurry. She turned around and curled into a ball, crouching at the edge of the bed.

With her small head—one side of its ponytail undone—facing outward, Ming Xi turned her back to Ji Wu. She lifted her fluffy, two-toned tail and tapped it rhythmically, brushing and teasing against Ji Wu’s side.

“Master, can I eat a few of the chickens in your backyard?” It didn’t take long for Ming Xi to get bored.

She turned her head to look at the already-asleep Ji Wu and held up five fingers.

“…I don’t have—no!” Ji Wu was forced to open her eyes again.

Where would there be chickens in her backyard? Those were cranes.

“Oh.” Ming Xi nodded, looking quite regretful. She retracted her five fingers and held up two, then quickly pulled them back and licked her lips. “Fine, then I can’t.”

“…”

Ji Wu remained silent.

The beast didn’t speak anymore either, but her tail was still restless, the soft fur lightly brushing against Ji Wu’s pinky finger like a silent flirtation.

The night was damp and cold, yet Ji Wu only felt the dark caress by her hand was like a blazing campfire, making her involuntarily want to get closer.

Outside the window, a fine rain began to fall. The fingertip that had drifted outward by half an inch touched a hint of warmth.

Raindrops also splashed onto the windowsill.