Chapter 18 : Purring
When the system finally caught up, it saw its host obediently nestled in Yun Qingyue's arms.
Jiang Mo was unnaturally quiet, causing the system to instinctively sense something amiss. It casually opened the data panel for a look and discovered that its host's quietness was merely superficial—her heart was actually racing, far exceeding its normal rate. Something the system didn't know about must have just happened!
In fact, the system's assessment wasn't wrong.
Just moments ago, Jiang Mo had leaped down from the peach tree, and Yun Qingyue had caught her as promised. There was nothing inherently wrong with this, except that where Jiang Mo landed was somewhat inappropriate—it was... a bit soft, and due to feline instinct, she had even kneaded the spot with her paws.
Jiang Mo hadn't realized it at first, instinctively kneading before discovering that she might have stepped somewhere she shouldn't have. If she were truly just a little milk tiger, it would have been fine, but she was actually an adult inside, and upon realizing this, she naturally felt incredibly embarrassed. Thus, she instantly became well-behaved. If the system looked carefully, it would notice that beyond her racing heart, her face beneath the fur had turned completely red.
The little white tiger curled her paws, as if hiding evidence, and nestled obediently in Yun Qingyue's arms. At this point, even if the system offered her a 20,000 experience point daily quest, not just the 2,000 experience points one, she wouldn't move an inch.
Fortunately, Yun Qingyue didn't think much of it—or rather, she had no wariness toward this recently born and extremely weak little white tiger. Seeing the little white tiger suddenly nestling obediently in her arms, she was somewhat concerned, and only after carefully checking that it wasn't injured did she ask: "What's wrong? Were you frightened just now?"
Jiang Mo tucked her tail and didn't respond, merely hiding her head under her paws, allowing Yun Qingyue to misunderstand.
Seeing this, Yun Qingyue indeed misunderstood, finding the little white tiger's timidity somewhat amusing. After some thought, she took out the two peaches from earlier and offered the one she had picked: "Here, your peach. Do you still want to eat it?"
The peaches in the cultivation world were different from those in the mortal realm. Though they merely appeared more beautiful, the unique fragrance of peaches was more enticing than any Jiang Mo had eaten before. So much so that even the little tiger, who should eat meat, couldn't resist being tempted by the smell. She stealthily moved her paws to peek a couple of times, ultimately unable to resist pouncing forward to grab it.
With an "aowu," the little milk tiger bared her small milk teeth and bit into it. Sweet peach juice immediately filled her mouth.
Jiang Mo narrowed her eyes in satisfaction, temporarily forgetting her earlier embarrassment—heaven knows, in the half month since her transmigration, this was the only normal food she had eaten besides milk.
After all, she was already an adult; how could she be accustomed to drinking milk as food? And taking pills was even worse.
In the quiet courtyard, there seemed to be a faint laugh, but when Jiang Mo opened her eyes to look, she saw that Yun Qingyue's expression remained as cool as ever, as if that earlier laugh had been just her imagination.
Then the cold beauty did move. She extended a jade-like finger and gently hooked under the little milk tiger's chin, scratching it like one would tease a cat. Caught by surprise, Jiang Mo didn't react in time and was once again controlled by instinct—the little white tiger, holding the peach, narrowed her eyes and made a "gulu gulu" purring sound in her throat, clearly enjoying it.
When Jiang Mo realized what she had done, the heat that had just subsided on her face instantly flared up again. In frustration, she lowered her head and directly bit Yun Qingyue's finger, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to actually bite her, so she just gently gnawed on it.
Of course, as a useless little tiger, she probably couldn't break through a Golden Core cultivator's defenses even if she wanted to.
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After a "friendly" exchange with her caretaker in the courtyard, the little white tiger finished her peach, and Yun Qingyue also didn't disappoint the little white tiger's intentions by eating the one she had picked.
After this delay, the human and tiger finally entered the room.
Yun Qingyue's room was very simple, even to the point of being somewhat spartan—a table, chairs, a bed, a kettle, teacups, and a folding screen erected on one side of the room were almost everything visible at a glance. Although cultivators usually kept personal items like clothing in storage equipment they carried with them, living quarters this sparse were rare.
Jiang Mo jumped down and walked around the room, ultimately concluding: everything in this room was probably original furnishing; Senior Sister was either a minimalist or always ready to move.
Of course, this didn't much matter to Jiang Mo—after all, she was just a little milk tiger seeking adoption.
After inspecting her territory with tiger steps, the little milk tiger saw Yun Qingyue casually take a small bed out of her storage space, made it thick and soft, and then asked: "You'll sleep here, is that all right?"
Jiang Mo was somewhat stunned, not because of the treatment, but because she hadn't expected that someone as cold and quiet as Yun Qingyue would have a baby bed hidden in her storage ring... Senior Sister, are you serious? And just how big is your storage ring? Others store precious materials, while you store such strange things?
The little white tiger was shocked for a moment, but compared to having a nest laid out on the ground, having a bed to sleep in was certainly better. So she walked closer and leaped onto it. Before she could even test its softness, the system's prompt had already sounded—
"Ding, congratulations host on gaining cultivation enhancement. Cultivation speed can be increased by 20% at this location."
Jiang Mo immediately realized that this "baby bed" was actually a treasure, but before she could be delighted, she asked the system: "Cultivation? Does our game have a cultivation system? I've only seen daily quests and monster-killing for leveling up?"
The system had sensed the odd atmosphere since its return and hadn't interjected until now, when Jiang Mo asked: "The system doesn't have one, but divine beasts themselves can cultivate. It's just that the host's level is too low, and the blood inheritance can't be activated, so there's no way to obtain the white tiger inheritance's cultivation method..."
Jiang Mo immediately interrupted at this point: "Alright, stop there. You're about to persuade me to kill monsters and level up again."
But the system denied this and continued from where it left off: "Host, don't be discouraged. Although you can't cultivate, you have a racial talent. Previously, sleeping for a day gave you 1 experience point; now sleeping on this bed, you can gain 1.2 experience points per day. Isn't that exciting?"
Jiang Mo: "..."
She felt the system was mocking her, since at her current experience requirements for leveling up, she'd probably need to sleep for eight or ten years to gain one level. But she wasn't angry at all; she took out a Spirit Nurturing Pill and consumed it, immediately gaining +500 experience points.
System: "..."
Now it was the system's turn to fall silent, before it expressed heartfelt pain: "Host, can't you just try to be active for once?!"