The Aloof Master Relies on This Cat's Kisses to Survive - Chapter 3

She Clearly… Knows Everything!

Wait.

Ji Wu opened her mouth but found no words.

Ming Xi’s head retreated into the quilt with a swift, silent motion. Without a single unnecessary movement or a moment of lingering, she truly intended to leave.

“Sister Ji Wu, are you asleep?”

A sudden knock sounded at the door, followed by a soft inquiry from outside.

Ji Wu responded, “Wait a moment.”

It was unclear who exactly she was speaking to. Ji Wu sat up, but the rebellious beast was already nowhere to be found.

She left in such a hurry.

Fine, let her go!

“What is it?”

Ji Wu got out of bed and asked the person outside again, “Is there a problem with the ritual array?”

“Yes, the array at the southern base of the mountain. Would you like to come take a look, Sister?” The visitor seemed to hesitate. “Sister Ji Wu, had you already retired? Am I disturbing you?”

“No. I came here specifically for the arrays. Wait a moment; we’ll go together.”

Ji Wu had only moved into the Xuanling Sect yesterday under the identity of a member of the Dongfang Clan. No one knew that this “Ji Wu” was actually the legendary Grandmaster.

Everyone simply assumed that because the Spirit Mountain had recently shown signs of revival, the Dongfang family had sent this senior to reinforce the mountain-guarding arrays.

Currently, Ji Wu’s cultivation was unstable, so this identity was convenient for her actions; she had no objections to it.

After dressing, the Grandmaster cast one last glance around the room.

Her intuition was correct; Ming Xi hadn’t actually left. The Dream Beast was squeezed into a gap in the wardrobe, staring intently toward the door.

However, Ji Wu currently lacked spiritual vision and was worried about the mountain arrays, so she did not linger and quickly departed with the person outside.

Ming Xi poked her head out and propped up the window, watching the two disappearing figures with dissatisfaction. Sister Ji Wu?

Hmph, calling her so intimately. Who is so bold?

Propping her hands on the windowsill, Ming Xi vaulted out of the room, leaping onto the eaves and darting toward the Spirit Mountain.

How annoying—having to go into the mountains while it’s raining. Ming Xi wanted to see exactly what “bad thing” was causing trouble for her Master.

“ROAR—”

The small street, which had been filled with leisurely pedestrians just moments ago, was now a scene of total wreckage. The stalls meticulously arranged by vendors were overturned, and their various goods were scattered all over the ground.

“Ah, so it’s… Little Greed?”

The Xuanling Sect was situated between the Spirit Mountain and Yunming Town, and Ji Wu’s residence was on the outskirts. Ming Xi had only taken a few leaps before arriving at the scene first.

She intercepted the Nian Monster (Thought Demon), which was planning to return to the mountains after a full meal.

It was a creature as towering as a pavilion. Ming Xi instinctively recognized its species.

Although she couldn’t remember who she was, all things in the Spirit Mountain shared the same lineage as Ming Xi. When she opened her eyes after eight years of slumber, the spirits and monsters in the mountains were invigorated. Conversely, because the mountain-guarding arrays were set by Ji Wu, they suffered the backlash of the contract and were on the verge of collapse.

In this imbalance of rising and falling power, the first to suffer was naturally Yunming Town, which was closest to the Spirit Mountain.

“Too much greed leads to indigestion, tsk.” Ming Xi didn’t even bother to look up; she simply reached out and tapped the giant monster’s bloated belly. “Here… this person, how are they still whole?”

“Roar~” The Nian Monster let out another sound, though it was unclear if it was answering.

“Oh? You can’t chew them?” Ming Xi smiled and tilted her head. “Then I’ll help you slice them up.”

She finally looked up, her clear eyes as beautiful as the bright moon, even carrying a smile as she glanced at the Nian Monster’s muddy pupils. “Do you prefer a horizontal cut, or a diagonal one?”

Asking such nonsensical questions, Ming Xi let out a yawn. The Nian Monster was immobilized by her powerful pressure and couldn’t answer at all.

Ming Xi grew impatient.

Her gaze sharpened, and the darkness gathered in her irises bled into the whites of her eyes. In an instant, Ming Xi’s eye color shifted from deep black to one gold and one silver.

Sharp claws suddenly sprouted from the fingertips she had resting on the monster’s hide.

A cold light flashed, followed by a splash of crimson.

The Nian Monster didn’t even have time to scream, let alone counterattack. A massive pile of viscous sludge spilled out of its ruptured body—it was the vendors who had been selling their wares on the street just moments ago.

Severed limbs and remains were scattered everywhere. Among them, only one person remained intact with a breath of life left: the young girl from the hairpin stall who had given Ming Xi the candy.

With a speck of red splashed on her small face, Ming Xi flicked her hand indifferently. She paid no mind to the unconscious vendor and simply turned toward the end of the street. “Hmm?”

Master is here! So fast; Master really is amazing!

Her eyes suddenly turned bright black again. Ming Xi leaped up in a few bounds, hiding on a nearby eave and hanging upside down with half her head exposed to watch.

Soon, two figures arrived, riding the wind.

The rain had lessened slightly, falling lazily onto the pile of sludge and spreading a stench of rot.

Though they were newly dead, having entered the Nian Monster’s belly, the people who were just struggling to make a living on the street had already become bloated and rotten.

Humans are truly fragile.

Ming Xi hung beneath the eaves, shaking her head and sighing: Humans are also very stupid. I’m crouching right here in plain sight, yet no one has noticed me.

It was understandable for Master, who had no spiritual power and couldn’t maintain spiritual vision, but why did the person beside her have no inkling either?

With this level of skill, she dares to call Master “Sister” one after another?

Ming Xi tilted her head to study the white-clothed woman beside Ji Wu: Tsk.

Ming Xi didn’t like her; this person had no dreams.

Wait, that’s not right.

This fellow wasn’t human at all, which explains why there were no dreams.

She also wasn’t the same person who had stood outside the door calling Ji Wu “Sister” earlier.

Ming Xi didn’t recognize people by their faces and wasn’t aware of how sensitive humans were to facial features. She frowned, unsure if Ji Wu had noticed that the woman beside her had been replaced.

Interesting. She wasn’t in a hurry, continuing to crouch under the eaves and wait.

“Senior Sister Dongfang, we are a step too late.”

The Xuanling Sect disciple being watched by Ming Xi naturally failed to notice the gaze from behind. she merely cast a quick glance at the remains on the ground and pursed her lips at the vendor who was still breathing.

“You save the person; I’ll go check the ritual array.” Ji Wu’s spiritual power was currently dissipated, so she had no way to perform healing arts.

The disciple, however, did not move, merely knitting her brows. “Senior Sister Dongfang, this Nian Monster… who killed it?”

As the name implies, a Nian Monster is the manifestation of the thoughts of living beings, categorized into three grades: Greed, Anger, and Ignorance. The dead one before them was the most common First-Grade Greed, characterized by being pitch black, massive, and incredibly foul-smelling.

This monster wasn’t difficult to kill; two or three low-level Xuanling Sect disciples could handle it. However, the slash marks on the corpse were clearly not caused by a weapon or a spell.

Ji Wu, of course, recognized that ruthless gash, but she was unwilling to reveal it. “You investigate; I will go repair the ritual array.”

She had been in seclusion for several years and didn’t know much about the affairs of Yunming Town, nor did she want to interfere too much.

Ji Wu had returned using her clan identity this time simply to observe the revival of the Spirit Mountain.

Having said that, she walked briskly toward the base of the mountain.

Her white-clothed silhouette moved like a celestial shadow under the moon. Even though she was merely walking at a fast pace, Ji Wu’s every movement seemed like a deity descending to the mortal realm. With such immortal grace, the claim that she was just an outer disciple sent by the Dongfang family was truly hard to believe.

But then again, who would dare guess her true identity?

The two-colored tail followed her Master’s trail closely. In an instant, the person and the beast arrived at the Southern Ritual Array.

The Spirit Mountain was a vast expanse of overlapping peaks and ridges. For hundreds of years, few had dared to enter or leave. After all, the “spirit” of the mountain consisted not only of life-giving natural treasures but also of dark, lurking spirits and monsters.

In the past, with Ming Xi guarding the mountain and Grandmaster Ji Wu setting ritual arrays at the base, both sides had remained at peace, not encroaching upon one another.

But the situation was different now.

The Divine Lord of the Spirit Mountain had vanished.

The Dream Beast of the Human Realm had been executed by Grandmaster Ji Wu eight years ago—though the mountain spirits didn’t believe it. If the Dream Beast were dead, how could the Spirit Mountain regain its vitality?

Thus, taking advantage of the contract’s backlash and the collapsing arrays, the mountain spirits emerged one by one. Some only wanted to investigate, while others harbored malicious intentions; even a tiny Nian Monster dared to swallow people on the street.

This chaos had to be suppressed immediately.

Ji Wu frowned, her cold expression softened slightly by the misty rain, making her appear even more detached.

After being backlashed by Ming Xi, her spiritual power had crumbled. She couldn’t even maintain ordinary spells, let alone repair a ritual array.

She needed an assistant.

“Master!”

A cheerful tone broke through the curtain of rain. Before her assistant could arrive, the one meant to cause trouble popped up first.

“You must not call me Master again!” Ji Wu didn’t look back, only listening as the voice drew closer.

“Then should I call you Senior Sister?” Ming Xi tucked her hands into her pockets and shrunk her neck, exhaling a puff of warm air that was immediately scattered by the mist. “It’s so cold, Senior Sister~ What are you doing here?”

“Hide your tail!” Ji Wu glanced at her. As her eyelashes lifted, they caught a raindrop that happened to splash onto Ming Xi’s shoulder. “Why are you… you should change into Xuanling Sect clothing.”

Ming Xi’s gold and silver jacket was too eye-catching, especially paired with a fluffy, patterned skirt. It didn’t look like an identity that would be at the base of the mountain in the middle of the night.

“Mm, I’ll listen to Master—Senior Sister!” Ming Xi took it as Ji Wu’s permission to follow her. She happily changed her attire and acted the part of a little Junior Sister of the Xuanling Sect.

However, her beauty was natural; how could a change of clothes hide her loveliness?

“Your eyes.” Ji Wu sighed and shook her head again.

“I don’t know how to change my eyes.” Ming Xi blinked her gold and silver eyes. Being forced to wear this dull, plain robe was already a grievance; why wasn’t she allowed to keep a bit of asymmetry on her body?

Ming Xi hated monotony and symmetry more than anything.

“Stop trying to fool me.” After saying that, Ji Wu ignored her and focused on checking the flaws in the array.

The Dream Beast was an expert in dream arts; transformation was the most basic aspect of dream magic. How could she not know?

She clearly… knew everything!

She could be a vine, a stream, a water-soaked brush, a willow branch swaying in the wind…

She was a karmic hindrance!

“Fine.” Ming Xi clapped her hands together, changing her eyes to a normal color, then poked her head out from behind Ji Wu to look around. “What’s wrong with this strange circle?”

She didn’t understand arrays, but Ming Xi liked circles.

When she saw a circle, she wanted to squat in it.

If it weren’t for Ji Wu’s solemn expression, Ming Xi probably would have jumped in to play already.

“This is the mountain-guarding array, used to…”

Used to counter the dream source of the Spirit Mountain.

Ji Wu raised her phoenix-like eyes to look at Ming Xi, trying to find even a trace of a reaction on her face.

Regarding Ming Xi’s amnesia, Ji Wu had always remained skeptical because this rebellious beast was incredibly cunning.

Perhaps she was only pretending to have forgotten her past misdeeds, just so she could stay by Ji Wu’s side to play and cause trouble.

Other great demons wouldn’t do such a thing, but Ming Xi could. The number of absurd and malicious pranks she had pulled over the centuries was far too many.

“Mountain-guarding array, mm.”

And currently, Ming Xi indeed looked like a very spirited and mischievous girl.

Seeing Ji Wu look at her, she immediately tilted her small face toward her. “Does Master need spiritual power to inspect the array? Look, Ming Xi is ready.”