Civet Sixteen

Jiang Yang turned his head toward the voice and saw a lovely figure in jade white.

The girl wore a white dress, her long, fine black hair falling loose. Her exquisite features seemed worthy of a painting: brows like a new moon, long lashes trembling faintly, eyes like morning stars. A pale blush shone through her flawless fair skin, and her thin lips, pressed together, took on an extra sheen.

A flicker of surprise crossed Jiang Yang's eyes. The girl before him had a graceful figure and youthful beauty, with a long white jade flute hanging at her waist. Every glance carried an air of quiet elegance unlike anything he had ever seen.

Silence settled between them. Fortunately, Jiang Yang soon collected himself, concealed his astonishment at her beauty, and asked:

"Is this your cat?"

"Yes."

The girl gave a slight nod, her voice as clear and sweet as an oriole's.

"So it's yours. I didn't even notice when it came over, so I played with it for a while..."

Sensing that the girl seemed a little shy around strangers, Jiang Yang stroked the cat sleeping soundly on his lap and praised it:

"It's adorable, and so well-behaved. What's its name?"

It's terribly mischievous. Since when has it ever been this docile...? Shang Qingzheng grumbled inwardly, but still answered earnestly:

"I haven't given it a name yet. It was the sixteenth to be born, so for now I call it Little Sixteen."

"Little Sixteen..." Jiang Yang repeated, then smiled. "That's quite a fun name..."

He had heard her call out earlier, but had paid little attention. No one hearing that would have thought it was a cat's name.

"Here... you can have it back."

Now that its owner had come looking for it, Jiang Yang could hardly keep monopolizing the cat. He quickly scooped it up, rose, and held it out to her.

The sudden movement startled Little Sixteen awake from its deep sleep. It squinted, saw that it was Jiang Yang, and let out an enormous yawn.

Shang Qingzheng stepped forward and took Little Sixteen. Since Bi had returned it to her, she said:

"Thank you."

Only then did Little Sixteen open its sleepy eyes. Turning its head and seeing Shang Qingzheng's face, it hastily ducked its head, its first impulse actually to flee.

Though still a cub, it was remarkably intelligent. Knowing it had caused trouble, it instinctively began to struggle. But how could Shang Qingzheng let it have its way? She wrapped both arms around it, holding it firmly against her chest.

"Mrow~"

Little Sixteen cried noisily, its large round eyes fixed on Jiang Yang with an unmistakably pleading look.

Jiang Yang marveled at the sight. He had thought the cat was merely clever, but he had never expected it to understand people so well that it even knew to ask him for help.

Could this be a spirit beast?

Spirit beasts were creatures that displayed spiritual awareness. In the broadest sense, the term encompassed beasts between heaven and earth that absorbed spiritual energy and circulated qi. Unlike human cultivators, who refined their lives and cultivated their bodies, their supernatural powers passed down solely through their bloodlines. Those of noble lineage were born divine.

Of course, nowadays the term more often referred to varieties reared by humans. Jiang Yang had studied the Beast Compendium in the Lower Court, which contained fairly detailed introductions to more than a hundred common spirit beasts. But he had never actually seen one before; none of the spirit beasts raised by the Sect were kept within Falling Rain Peak's bounds.

Although curious, Jiang Yang did not rashly ask. Instead, he straightened his clothes and offered a cupped-hand salute.

"I am Jiang Yang, a disciple of Morning Rain Peak. May I ask your name, senior sister?"

This was nothing like his time in the Lower Court. As a new disciple who had only just entered the inner sect, Jiang Yang stood a head lower than everyone he met; practically everyone had a higher cultivation than he did. Calling her senior sister was hardly likely to cost him anything. In any case, a sweet tongue never hurt.

Holding Little Sixteen, Shang Qingzheng could not easily return his salute, so she gave a slight curtsy and answered briefly:

"My surname is Shang, and my given name is Qingzheng. I'm a disciple of this Dawn Rain Peak."

With his cultivation barely at the beginning of Qi Refining, she could tell at a glance that Jiang Yang was a newly admitted disciple. Naturally, he was here to tend the spirit bamboo.

"So I stand before a direct disciple. Forgive my lack of courtesy."

Dawn Rain Peak was a True Person's seat of cultivation. Not just anyone was entitled to call themselves a disciple of this peak; they had to be a direct disciple formally accepted under that master.

At those words, Shang Qingzheng's fairly good mood immediately sank a notch. What she disliked most was everyone treating her with such meticulous deference. It drained all the fun out of things.

She merely waved a hand. "What does it matter whether I'm a direct disciple? It's only a status."

Then, her interest waning, she was about to leave.

Puzzled by this, Jiang Yang's eyes suddenly brightened, and he asked with the eager air of someone hoping for an interesting story:

"Oh? From what you're saying, senior sister, even direct disciples aren't free to do as they please. Is there some difficulty?"

For the first time, Shang Qingzheng turned fully toward him and looked directly at the cheerful young man before her, asking:

"Aren't you... afraid of me?"

After some hesitation, the girl had chosen the word "afraid." Yet what she meant was almost as if she were asking Jiang Yang: I've already told you who I am, so why aren't you keeping your distance?

Jiang Yang smiled and answered her with a question of his own:

"You're no raging flood or savage beast, senior sister. What is there to be afraid of? Surely direct disciples don't eat people?"

It was not that he failed to understand Shang Qingzheng's meaning. Jiang Yang simply happened not to be a native of this world, and felt no inherent awe toward its sharply defined hierarchy. At heart, his nature was rather lively and unrestrained; his earlier respect had mostly been a habitual expression of politeness.

Shang Qingzheng's eyes brightened. She pressed her lips together, a hint of laughter in her voice:

"I certainly don't eat people. It's just that people are always putting me on a pedestal, weighing every word so carefully, as though I were terribly fickle.

"As for freedom, a direct disciple is still a disciple. Until you become a Violet Palace True Person, when can you ever truly be free?"

She had her own difficulties, of course. Otherwise, she would not have come to the Rain Listening Pavilion to clear her head. But actually bringing them up would spoil the mood, so she simply left them unspoken.

"Violet Palace..." Jiang Yang savored the words, longing stirring within him.

A Violet Palace True Person enjoyed five hundred years of life, wielded supernatural powers, roamed the azure heavens, and sat watching the tides rise and fall. Where beneath heaven could they not go? What exhilarating freedom!

The thought flashed through Jiang Yang's mind, but he quickly suppressed it. He had not even reached Foundation Establishment yet. Better not to reach for heights far beyond him.

Looking down, he saw Little Sixteen lying in Shang Qingzheng's arms, licking its snow-white paws and washing its face. Jiang Yang smoothly took the opportunity to ask:

"Little Sixteen seems quite extraordinary. It must be a spirit beast, right?"

Shang Qingzheng had been worried that further questions from Jiang Yang would put her in an awkward position. Hearing this, she breathed a sigh of relief and gladly explained:

"It is indeed a spirit beast. If you trace its parents' bloodlines, they're quite noble. One was a [Snowridge Pine-Listening Civet], which later mated with a [Black Jade Profound Cat] from the Sect to produce this offspring.

"The Snowridge Pine-Listening Civet has fur whiter than snow, fine and soft as velvet. It treads upon snow and commands the cold, with the north wind of the pine forests following its light, leaping movements.

"The Black Jade Profound Cat is the color of black jade, with unusually colored eyes. Quiet by day and active by night, it can detect danger and give warning, seeking fortune and avoiding harm."

At this point, Shang Qingzheng grew thoughtful. Though Little Sixteen was still a cub, it had inherited the extraordinary gifts of both bloodlines. The subsidiary peaks of Dawn Rain Peak covered such a vast area, yet it had chosen to come here.

Before this, she had never seen the civet grow close to anyone. Even Sister Zhou Ying, who was very familiar with her, could rarely so much as touch it.

How much of this could be coincidence?