Chapter 225: Nine-lived spirit cat carries a heavy debt of gratitude, heartless old demon brings a bone-chilling bite

Night, at the mortician's shop.

Xuanyu watched Xu Qing with restless unease; before its eyes, Xu Qing was packing its luggage.

The Water-Avoiding Bead, the Thousand-Insect Gu jar, and even the shuttlecock and that pair of decorative walnuts were not left behind.

Xu Qing packed all these items into the Hu-Light Cup. This cup contained a space three feet square; though not large, it was enough for a cat to use when going out.

Xuanyu felt hollow inside, its nervous expression not at all like that of a great demon of several hundred years.

Instead, it looked like a child being forced by an adult to pack their school satchel, ordered to attend a private school for enlightenment.

Subconsciously, it wanted to escape, to run to the Flower and Bird Street or the pier's fish market to wander and avoid the sharp edge of the situation.

But it never expected that the speed it prided itself on would be like a tortoise crawling before this human!

Xuanyu darted left and right, even going so far as to manifest eight figures to flee in all directions, yet it was still ruthlessly grabbed by the scruff of its neck by a large hand.

That nonchalant manner was exactly the same as how it usually caught little mice!

Yet, it was a spirit cat with nearly five hundred years of cultivation. Even if a human had survived a lightning tribulation, how could they so easily crush it in terms of speed?

Did it not have its pride?

The cat's Dao heart shattered, and it had no choice but to sit obediently to the side, letting Xu Qing pack its luggage.

"Don't always think about escaping. Some things must be faced sooner or later!"

Xu Qing placed the Hu-Light Cup in front of Xuanyu. Through the glass-like semi-transparent texture, one could even see the various items inside, shrunk to the size of a fingertip.

"Tell me about your past, about that life of yours."

Xuanyu did not respond, remaining silent, looking as if it intended to play dumb to muddle through.

This cat also had its own little calculations: as long as it didn't tell Xu Qing where the enemy was or who had harmed it, Xu Qing wouldn't be able to take it to seek revenge.

In that case, they could still guard this little shop and live their lives in Jinmen without a care.

Immortal Xu would also not be harmed because of this matter.

However, the next moment, Xuanyu heard Xu Qing utter a string of place names that made its fur stand on end.

"Quyang Commandery, Mount Yunmeng, Bailong Village, Ruyi Temple."

"—Old Daoist Bai Yun!"

Clearly, Xu Qing's voice was not loud, but when Xuanyu heard these words, it was as if thunder had exploded in its ears; the entire cat was somewhat dazed.

"How do you know everything?"

"I don't know everything. Someone told me these things the day before yesterday."

"Who?!"

Xu Qing did not hide it, recounting one by one how Imperial Prince Jingxing had curried favor with Emperor Longping and had people seek out immortal pills.

"As for who told me, you should have heard of the old eunuch from the Mirror-Reflecting Bureau."

"The old eunuch?"

"The one who broke the legs of the merchant family's young master."

Xuanyu understood now.

"So it was that old eunuch."

At this moment, Xuanyu's tail flicked back and forth, clearly very dissatisfied with this old eunuch who had secretly informed.

"He is already dead." Xu Qing seemed to know what Xuanyu was thinking.

Xuanyu widened its eyes, looking at Xu Qing.

"You did it?"

Xu Qing did not deny it.

Now Xuanyu was truly panicked. The old eunuch who had been ordered to fetch the medicine was already dead, so who was Xu Qing's next target?

Was it the Imperial Prince who had originally sought the medicine, the current ruler of the nation, or the demon Daoist of Mount Yunmeng?

These two targets, to Xuanyu, were each like a great mountain, difficult to overcome.

"Can we not go?"

Seeing Xu Qing look up, Xuanyu gathered its courage and said many things, the gist being that it had nine lives and losing one didn't matter, but Immortal Xu only had one life...

Xu Qing stared at the black cat that only thought of others, and suddenly asked: "Why did you go to the Daoist temple on Mount Yunmeng in the first place? Was the reason you were caught really just because of the demon Daoist of Ruyi Temple?"

Xuanyu's gaze darted away; no matter how Xu Qing pressed, it refused to answer directly.

Seeing this, Xu Qing was not angry. He stood up and turned to walk out of the shop.

"Where are you going?"

"To the capital. Since you won't say, I'll go to the imperial palace and ask that dog emperor what exactly is going on."

"But I am definitely no match for the dog emperor right now. He hides in the deep palace, protected by the nation's fortune, and the eighty thousand imperial guards in the capital are not just for show. If I go, I will surely come back in pieces, and since Xuanyu hasn't learned how to stitch corpses, I imagine you'll stitch me up looking very ugly..."

"But none of that matters. I only hope that when the time comes, Xuanyu can burn a stick of incense for me and tell me the truth, so I can close my eyes in peace."

Xu Qing, a dead man, a zombie, didn't even blink when telling such lies.

Xuanyu believed it to be true, and upon hearing these remarks, the whole cat felt terrible.

"You can't go!"

The black cat jumped off the coffin lid, darted to the shop door, stood on its hind legs, and stretched out its short little claws to block Xu Qing.

"Doesn't Immortal Xu just want to know the truth? I'll tell you everything, but you can't go to the capital, and you certainly can't come back in pieces!"

How could a cat be as devious as Xu Qing, who had once been a human? With this little combo, it had been arranged clearly and thoroughly.

In the mortician's shop, a lamp flickered like a bean.

Xuanyu sat before Xu Qing, its shadow cast on the wall just happened to be obscured by Xu Qing's tall figure.

Xu Qing acted as the listener, quietly hearing Xuanyu recount the past buried deep in its heart.

From the first time it encountered a human, to the first time it was fed, to the first time it was abandoned by a human...

Only then did Xu Qing know that the first human Xuanyu followed was an old temple keeper, and a reclusive old woman with a strange temper who never liked to interact with outsiders.

Yet it was this very old woman who, the second time Xuanyu met her, lured it to Ruyi Temple and into the trap set by the demon Daoist to capture it!

Xu Qing was silent for a long while. In Xuanyu's words, that reclusive old witch was originally a compassionate person; she would not only give porridge and rice to disaster victims and poor families, but also go out to provide free medical consultations to patients who couldn't afford the fees.

But it was this person who seemed kind-hearted who had repeatedly betrayed Xuanyu—abandoning it once, and the second time, causing Xuanyu to lose a life.

Xu Qing fell into deep confusion. He had performed funeral rites for no small number of corpses; among them were those who were fickle, those who violated morality for profit, and those who returned evil for good and were treacherous.

But like what Xuanyu said, a person who had always appeared very kind suddenly sold the spirit cat that accompanied her to a demon Daoist she didn't even know.

Even though Xu Qing was accustomed to the complexity of human nature, he couldn't grasp the logic within.

Xu Qing initially guessed whether the old woman didn't have much lifespan left, so she deliberately adopted Xuanyu just to refine a life-extending pill one day.

But Xuanyu told Xu Qing that although the old woman lured it into the trap, she didn't ask the Old Daoist Bai Yun for a life-extending pill, but instead demanded a thousand taels of common silver and a hundred taels of gold. A widowed old woman who usually lived in the open and gave all the money she earned to others, yet she specifically displayed a greedy appearance for worldly wealth.

No matter how one looked at this, it revealed an unnatural, absurd, and strange feeling.

"Perhaps she was waiting for the day the immortal medicine was refined, to then turn back and collect it..."

Hearing Xu Qing's guess, Xuanyu's mood became increasingly low; clearly, it was very unwilling to recall these past events.

"Does Immortal Xu also want immortal medicine for longevity?"

"Longevity?" Xu Qing curled his lips: "I am interested in everything, except for this!"

Zombies have no lifespan, born immortal; why would they need so-called immortal medicine to increase their lifespan and delay aging?

Only living people need these things.

The next day, just as Xu Qing finished handling the shop's affairs and intended to visit the elderly orphans who had signed up for the Iron Certificate membership before leaving Jinmen, the oblivious Shang Shaoyang suddenly arrived at the shop.

At this moment, this aristocratic young master had a melancholy expression, and his speech revealed a sense of helplessness.

"Brother Xu, you have ruined me!"

"How do you say that?" Xu Qing was puzzled.

Shang Shaoyang sighed: "The day before yesterday, I boasted here at Brother Xu's place that I was going to have a showdown with the old eunuch from the Mirror-Reflecting Bureau..."

"So, was there a result?"

"..."

Shang Shaoyang said with frustration: "If he had confronted me head-on and defeated me, I would have praised him for being tough. But this old thing actually ran to Jinmen overnight and died under the iron cannons of the Cangyi Group rebels at the Bai-Water Ferry..."

"You tell me, isn't that infuriating!"

"Isn't that a good thing? He broke one of your legs; you should be happy."

"Don't mention it!" Shang Shaoyang sighed: "Brother Xu doesn't know, but when I went to trouble that eunuch, I happened to run into Miss Gu coming out of the government office. I wanted to avoid her, so I turned and headed to the Mirror-Reflecting Bureau, but this little lady chased after me, insisting on asking why I was avoiding her."

"Could I tell the truth? I could only follow the story you gave me and tell her everything. You don't know how much mischief this little lady has in her heart; she made a bet with me, saying that as long as Supervisor Liao died today, I would have to marry her."

"..."

Xu Qing observed his nose and heart, listening quietly without making any evaluation.

"Later I found out that this old eunuch had died in Jinmen Prefecture the night before. Only the government office knew about this; she happened to go to the government office to find me that day and somehow heard the news."

"Sigh!" Young Master Shang lay on the grandmaster chair, looking lifeless: "Brother Xu, my life is ruined in her hands. After today, I have to go back to Qianzhou with her to get married."

"No one is willing to listen to me talk about this, so I can only run to Brother Xu's place to vent a little."

Xu Qing's eyelids twitched: "You came to me wanting me to comfort you?"

Seeing that Shang Shaoyang did not deny it, the anger in Xu Qing's heart flared up.

He had been looking for a place to vent his anger for the past two days, and Shang Shaoyang, having gained an advantage, actually came to him to act pitiful. If it weren't for the fact that the other party was an Iron Certificate member of the shop, Xu Qing would have wanted to stuff him into a body bag and bury him!

Chasing away the troublesome second-generation ancestor, Xu Qing left the shop, driving a carriage loaded with oil, rice, and eggs, and began to visit the elderly orphans who had used the shop's services.

Nowadays, the mortician's shop was large and prosperous, and there were no fewer than a hundred people who had signed up for the Iron Certificate membership. Xu Qing had originally scheduled to visit these people on the first and fifteenth of each month.

Today was still a few days away from the scheduled date, but Xu Qing visited them in advance so that he would have no worries when heading to Quyang Commandery.

Since these elderly people chose to trust him and hand over the end of their lives to him, he naturally had to take care of them properly.

The Xu family shop had always prioritized its clients.

During the days Xu Qing was busy, Xuanyu was not idle either. From Mount Xijing to the area of Linjiang County, almost all the prominent rats had suffered the righteous suppression of the Cat Immortal Hall.

Many rats, under pressure to survive, were forced to join the Cat Immortal Hall and became subordinates of Gu Zixu. Some who were unwilling to submit could only move their families out of Linjiang County and go to the neighboring Wanshou County, Baisha County, or Jinmen Prefecture to make a living.

For a time, the prestige of the Cat Immortal Hall spread throughout the immortal circle of Jinmen.

However, a tall tree catches the wind, and there were always some veteran immortals who felt that the little immortal of the Cat Immortal Hall didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth and shouldn't enjoy so much incense.

Mount Yuehua, outside the Hundred-Herb Cave.

A long-armed red-tailed monkey holding a Dragon-Imprisoning Staff was feeling jealous and sour.

"A little milk cat that hasn't even survived a single disaster, where did it get such a big name?"

"In the past, the big cats of Old Taishan had to hide when they saw me. Now, it's good, I finally came back, and my Monkey Immortal Hall's descendants can't even compare to a little cat."

Immortal Bai heard the red-tailed monkey's resentful words and said strangely: "The incense of the Cat Immortal Hall was earned through the hard work of their sect leader and the Cat Immortal, who often helped people resolve disasters. Otherwise, where would the thousands of incense come from?"

"You left Mount Xijing for many years, and your monkey descendants were left unmanaged, stealing and robbing among the villagers. People not tearing down your Monkey Immortal Hall is already out of consideration for old times' sake. Now, how do you have the nerve to blame others?"

Hearing this, the red-tailed monkey was both ashamed and annoyed, but had no words to refute.

However, this monkey secretly noted down the Cat Immortal Hall.

A little milk cat, with its six hundred years of cultivation, couldn't it be bullied?

Linjiang County.

On this day, a notice was suddenly hung outside the mortician's shop on Jingxia Street, stating that they were going out to conduct a funeral, with no set date for return.

The employees of the Cat Immortal Hall were in the dark, assuming that the sect leader and the resident Cat Immortal had gone out together.

At the Jinmen pier, Xu Qing and Xuanyu took a ferry and traveled south along the waterway.

Along the way, Xu Qing acted like a student traveling around, without the slightest sense of urgency to seek revenge or travel thousands of miles just to conduct a funeral.

At first, Xuanyu was quite nervous, but when it came into contact with the customs and various sceneries outside Jinmen, it gradually forgot about the matter.

Cats are always easily distracted by new things.

And so, as soon as the zombie and the cat arrived in the Qianzhou territory, they heard that the young master of the Shang family was going to marry the young lady of the Gu family on an auspicious day. One was from a thousand-year-old aristocratic family, a young master with deep foundations and both literary and martial arts skills; the other was from a family with a scholarly background, the daughter of the Gu family of the Huainan Dao soldiers. The wedding of the two became known to everyone in just a few days.

Xu Qing inquired, and it really was the Shang family where Shang Shaoyang belonged!

Isn't that a coincidence!

Back in Linjiang County, Shang Shaoyang had invited him to Qianxi to attend his wedding banquet.

At the time, Xu Qing ignored this second-generation ancestor, but he didn't expect that Quyang Commandery, located in the southwest, happened to be adjacent to Qianzhou.

"Does Immortal Xuanyu want to go eat at the banquet?"

Fate is something mysterious; Xu Qing felt that since they happened to encounter it, they might as well take a detour to have a look.

Hearing about the banquet, Xuanyu's eyes lit up.

The zombie and the cat hit it off immediately, as if this trip really was to meet friends and have fun!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 226 =====