Cultivating Little Black and Little White

"Okay, keep practicing. I'm going out for a stroll!" Su Ye stood up, stretched, and spoke to Zhang Erhu.

Su Ye left the shelter and followed the stream up Mount Jiuhua. Along the way, he encountered several venomous snakes by the gully and dealt with them all using the Ice Arrow Technique.

After quite a while, Su Ye finally reached Daoist Qinghua's cave abode again, but Little Black and Little White were nowhere to be seen.

Su Ye walked around the area and paid his respects to Daoist Qinghua before heading toward Little White's dwelling.

A few minutes later, Su Ye arrived.

Sure enough, Little White's aura was inside the cave, but where had Little Black gone?

"Little White!!!"

Su Ye shouted toward the cave entrance, and Little White came darting out.

Little White kept rubbing against Su Ye, and only after quite a while did his head leave Su Ye's chest.

"Little White, where's Little Black?"

Su Ye sensed the surroundings and found that Little Black wasn't nearby, so he asked Little White.

Little White looked up at the big tree beside the cave entrance, then lowered his head and told Su Ye that Little Black had probably gone out to forage.

Then Little White began acting affectionate toward Su Ye again, a yearning look in his eyes.

Well, he wants something again!

But Su Ye had never been stingy with the two beasts. This time, he took a full twenty stalks of mutated red ginseng out of the space.

As long as Little White and Little Black could grow quickly and help him, Su Ye was more than willing to give them these worldly possessions.

Ever since the military had come knocking, Su Ye had been eager to grow stronger. Lately, he had slipped into the Immortal Spirit Space to cultivate every night.

It wasn't that he wanted to confront Hua Country or anything. He simply wanted the power to protect himself, so that if his secret ever came to light, he wouldn't be unable to resist when someone with ulterior motives seized him and sliced him up for study.

You could choose not to do evil, but you couldn't afford to lack the ability to protect yourself! And as things stood, power was clearly the absolute guarantee of self-protection.

Just like nuclear weapons: you didn't have to use them, but you couldn't go without them!

When Little White saw Su Ye take out so much mutated ginseng, his eyes lit up. He stared at Su Ye's hand, his gaze full of longing.

Su Ye smiled knowingly and tossed Little White a stalk. Quick as lightning, Little White caught the mutated ginseng in his mouth, then swallowed it with a movement of his throat.

On Mount Jiuhua, a towering tree completely blocked out the blazing sunlight!

After swallowing the ginseng, Little White lay down in front of Su Ye and began to cultivate.

A gentle breeze brushed Su Ye's face.

Seeing white light flash across Little White's body from time to time, Su Ye sat down nearby, took the Pharmacopoeia he had been studying lately out of his storage bag, and began to read!

About an hour later, Su Ye was absorbed in his book beneath the tree. Little White was still the same beside him, as though asleep, with white light flashing across his body from time to time.

Just then, an eagle's cry rang out from the distant sky.

"Scree!!!"

Hearing the eagle's cry, Su Ye slowly lowered the book in his hands and looked up at the sky.

A tiny black dot in the distance gradually grew larger, soon arriving above the giant tree and circling it.

"Little Black!!!"

Su Ye waved at the sky. With so many leaves blocking the view, he wasn't sure whether Little Black had seen him.

But Little Black seemed to have spotted Su Ye. The moment Su Ye called out, Little Black immediately adjusted his flight and descended toward the ground.

"Flap!!!"

Little Black landed, his wings, more than a meter across, stirring up a great number of leaves.

When Little Black saw Su Ye, he ran over to him.

Su Ye stroked Little Black's glossy black feathers, then picked up a stalk of mutated ginseng from beside him and held it in front of Little Black.

The way Little Black looked at the mutated ginseng was exactly the same as Little White: his eyes lit up, and he couldn't take them off it.

"Oh, I almost forgot!"

Su Ye said, slapping his forehead.

He then picked an unidentified red spirit fruit from the space. The fruit had now turned red all over and was clearly ripe.

Little Black's shining eyes kept shifting back and forth between the mutated ginseng and the red spirit fruit in Su Ye's hands.

"Eat up!"

Su Ye said as he fed the spirit fruit to Little Black.

Little Black swallowed the spirit fruit whole, his eyes still fixed on the stalk of mutated ginseng.

"One step at a time. Eat this after you've absorbed the spirit fruit!"

With that, Su Ye put the ginseng into a bag beside him.

Little Black watched Su Ye put the mutated ginseng into the bag beside him. He reluctantly looked away, then closed his eyes and began refining the red spirit fruit.

It wasn't until the sun was nearly down that Little White opened his eyes. The delight in his gaze made it easy to see that he had made more progress.

The first thing Little White did upon waking was to twist his enormous body and walk toward Su Ye.

Su Ye put down his book and began rubbing Little White's head. Tigers were cats after all, and the moment Su Ye touched him, Little White narrowed his eyes and began enjoying it.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, Su Ye stood up, took another twenty-one stalks of mutated ginseng from the Immortal Spirit Space, and said to Little White:

"Here, you don't need to save any of these for me. Eat as much as you can. When Little Black wakes up, give him half, understand?"

Little White's eyes widened at the sight of Su Ye taking out so much more mutated ginseng.

"All right, I'm heading back. I'll come see you both next time!"

After giving those instructions, Su Ye headed down the mountain.

By the time Su Ye returned to the farm, Zhang Erhu was still practicing Xingyi Quan beside the shelter.

Su Ye nodded in satisfaction at the sight. He was very pleased with Zhang Erhu's dedication to martial arts, even admiring it.

At that moment, Zhang Erhu also saw Su Ye walking toward him from a distance. He stopped and called out:

"Brother Ye! Where did you go? I haven't seen you all day."

"Just focus on practicing your punches!"

As Su Ye spoke, he brought out the things he had just prepared from behind his back and handed them to Zhang Erhu.

"Brother Ye, what's this?"

Zhang Erhu took the large cloth bag. Inside were a small bag of spirit rice, about a jin of spirit tea leaves, and two pieces of Solomon's seal.

"These are all for you. They're good for your martial cultivation!"

Su Ye said, pointing at the cloth bag in Zhang Erhu's hands.

"Oh, right, you can also share some with Uncle Zhang and Auntie Li. These things are very useful to ordinary people too. Come find me when you run out, and I'll give you more."

Su Ye added.

For now, both Su Ye and Zhang Erhu had decided to keep their martial arts practice from their parents. After all, one less trouble was better than one more, and they didn't want their parents worrying about it either.