24. The Great Black One Gives Birth

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“Is that not allowed?” Yao Qian asked hesitantly, hearing the disbelief in his voice. “I specifically asked around at the market. Everyone said that magical beasts could eat magical-beast meat.”

“But this leopard cat is not your beast familiar.” Luo Ming had only ever heard of people feeding magical-beast meat to their own tamed beasts. He had never heard of anyone deliberately buying such meat to feed a wild animal outside. Of course, it was strange enough that an untamed magical beast would willingly eat meat offered by a human.

“Are you planning to tame it as your beast familiar?” Luo Ming asked practically. “Leopard cats are low-level magical beasts, and their attack power is weak. Even if you domesticated one, it would be of no use. Besides, what you are doing does not count as domestication. It could never obey you. You would have to restrain it with a beast-slave ring.”

“I never intended to keep it,” Yao Qian replied casually.

Big Black was a fully grown wild animal. How could a wild beast possibly be tamed? Nor could she lock it up simply because she liked it. That would not be affection.

When she saw Big Black stop after eating only half the strip of meat, she asked worriedly, “Big Black, are you feeling unwell?”

Why had it eaten only half? Its appetite had still been enormous a few days ago. In fact, Big Black had been coming to ask her for food almost every day lately. Could it really be ill? In the past, it had only come around once every ten days or so for a little extra food.

At her words, Big Black lifted its head and meowed twice. Yao Qian did not understand animal speech, so how could she know what it meant? She tentatively asked, “You think the meat tastes bad?”

She had bought the meat specially at the market. It should not have been stale, surely?

Seeing how foolish the two-legged creature was, Big Black simply lay down on Yao Qian’s steps, scratched at the entrance to her cave dwelling, and pawed at the door.

“You want to go inside?” Yao Qian asked uncertainly.

Big Black nodded. It was about to give birth. In the past, whenever it had given birth, it had needed to search laboriously for a safe place. Now that was no longer necessary. It could simply let this two-legged creature look after it. This two-legged creature was rather nice.

Yao Qian looked up at Luo Ming. “Does the sect have a veterinarian? I think Big Black might be sick.”

Luo Ming remained silent for quite some time. Seeing the seriousness on Yao Qian’s face, he finally realized that she truly intended to take a low-level magical beast to a veterinarian. He said slowly, “The sect does not have a veterinarian, but it does have Beast-Taming Peak. There are people there who can treat magical beasts.”

“However, this leopard cat is only a low-level magical beast. Probably no one would treat it.” If a low-level leopard cat died, then it died. Surely no one would waste money treating it? Besides—“This leopard cat is not sick. It is about to give birth.”

Luo Ming had never raised a magical beast himself, but his mother possessed a Snowshadow Leopard, and he had practically been raised by that beast. He was fairly familiar with magical-beast habits. Generally speaking, wild magical beasts were never this fat unless they were pregnant.

“Give birth?” Yao Qian was startled. “Big Black, are you pregnant?”

Big Black lazily glanced at the fussing two-legged creature. What was so strange about giving birth? It had already borne many litters.

It meowed at Yao Qian and impatiently slapped the door with its thick paws, making it clear that it wanted to go inside.

Yao Qian came to herself and hurriedly opened the door to let Big Black in. Then she rushed inside to find some soft cushions and spread them on the floor so that Big Black could lie down more comfortably.

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Luo Ming could hardly bear to watch. Was she caring for it like some revered ancestor?

“Magical beasts like this give birth very quickly. You do not need to worry. And once you give it that cushion, you will not be able to use it afterward. You would be better off using dry grass.”

Yao Qian waved her hand. “It is fine. I have plenty of these cushions.”

Luo Ming was speechless. If she had so many cushions, why had she not put one out for him when he came over? He had come all this way to deliver money to her, too.

For some inexplicable reason, a trace of grievance rose in Luo Ming’s heart. He said coldly, “I am leaving.”

Yao Qian had just learned that Big Black was going to give birth to kittens, and her heart and mind were filled with anticipation. She failed to notice the displeasure in Luo Ming’s voice and waved at him. “See you next time.”

When Luo Ming saw that she did not even lift her head to look at him, he turned around and left in a fury.

Yao Qian knelt beside Big Black and asked softly, “Big Black, are you uncomfortable? Should I take you to see a veterinarian?”

Giving birth was always dangerous. Humans were not the only creatures that could suffer complications; animals could as well. Yao Qian was filled with longing for the modern world. If she were still there, she could take Big Black to an animal hospital to deliver its babies.

As the birth drew near, Big Black instinctively rejected every living creature. But this two-legged creature was familiar to it, so Big Black reluctantly suppressed its instincts and refrained from attacking Yao Qian. It angrily raked one paw across the ground, leaving several deep scratches in the hard stone floor.

Seeing this, Yao Qian wisely fell silent. She had never given birth in her previous life, but she knew that it was painful. Putting herself in Big Black’s place, she imagined that if someone kept chattering beside her while she was suffering physical pain, she too would become irritable.

Fortunately, she had been reborn in the cultivation world, where she could practice the Red Dragon-Slaying technique and no longer had to worry about menstrual cramps.

After thinking it over, she took out her meditation cushion and placed it not far from Big Black. She would simply cultivate in silence. She did not dare leave, either. If something happened to Big Black and she failed to notice while meditating in the quiet room, that would be disastrous.

When Big Black saw that Yao Qian still had not left, it arched its body and growled unhappily, preparing to drive her away. But when the essence of the sun suddenly rose around them, it quieted at once. Closing its eyes in comfort, it stretched out its long body and allowed the solar essence to flow through it.

Leopard cats were low-level magical beasts. They did not know how to deliberately absorb the essence of the sun and moon; they cultivated by instinctively breathing in the radiance of the heavens. The energy surrounding this two-legged creature was equal to what it would normally absorb over a long period of time. For the sake of that energy, it decided not to chase her away.

Yao Qian had no idea that her cultivation had bribed Big Black. In fact, if a cultivator wanted a spirit beast to advance rapidly, the best method was to cultivate alongside it and allow it to share the spiritual energy drawn in by the cultivator. Aside from a few cultivators who were especially fond of their spirit beasts, most were unwilling to do so.

After all, not everyone had the Heavenly Derivation Stele to recommend cultivation methods for them. The spiritual energy everyone absorbed was barely enough for their own cultivation, let alone enough to distribute among their beast companions.

Yao Qian did not mind. She had long since grown accustomed to cultivating with Little Gold, her Golden Silkworm Gu. Adding Big Black made little difference.

Big Black’s labor lasted three days. Yao Qian was somewhat worried at first, but after seeing that its mood remained stable and that it showed no sign of discomfort, she relaxed and began cultivating and drawing talismans on her own.

With Big Black present, she did not draw talismans in the Heavenly Derivation Stele’s space. Instead, she took out her tools and drew them by hand.

Mental force was certainly convenient, but hand-drawing required practice as well. Otherwise, if someone asked her to draw a talisman one day, she would embarrass herself by lacking proficiency in the manual method.

As Yao Qian calmed her mind and concentrated on drawing, spiritual energy naturally gathered around her. There was less of it than when she cultivated, but it was sufficient for Big Black and Little Gold.

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One beast and one insect cultivated peacefully. Enjoying the comfort of having one companion on either side, Yao Qian became even more enthusiastic about drawing talismans.

Drawing talismans was her most reliable source of income. With enough money, she could buy a portable cave dwelling sooner. Then she could raise as many small animals as she pleased.

Inspired by her hopes for a beautiful life, Yao Qian broke through the bottleneck of the Wayfinding Talisman on the very day Big Black gave birth to a litter of ten leopard-cat kittens.

The changes in the Wayfinding Talisman were not as visible as those in the other talismans. After all, it was merely a compass for the cultivation world. No matter how elaborately one made a compass, it was still a compass.

If not for Yao Qian’s obsessive need to have all seven types of talismans break through in perfect order, she would not even have wanted to draw the Wayfinding Talisman. But whether they were exploring the wilderness or venturing into Dragon Burial Cliff, they would be traveling through the wilds, and the Wayfinding Talisman was indispensable.

She stored the several hundred Wayfinding Talismans she had drawn over the past few days in the designated storage gourd, then prepared an extra meal for Big Black, which had just finished giving birth.

This time, the extra meal consisted entirely of second-level magical-beast meat. Its cultivation level was higher than Big Black’s, and the meat was rich in spiritual energy. Big Black devoured it greedily, so absorbed in eating that it forgot all about its ten hungry kittens.

Unable to nurse, the ten little balls of fur began crying one after another.

Leopard-cat kittens were born with fine, soft fur. Their eyes had not yet opened, and they kept mewling through tiny pink mouths. They were so adorable that anyone’s heart would tremble at the sight.

Yao Qian counted them and discovered that Big Black had given birth to ten kittens in a single litter. Each had a different coat pattern. Only one especially tiny kitten had inherited Big Black’s pure-black fur.

“Looks like your mate this time was a tabby,” she said with a sigh. “Big Black, you are truly a heroic mother!”

She had always assumed that carnivorous animals, like humans, would not give birth to very many offspring at once. She had never expected Big Black to be so prolific.

Yao Qian knew little about magical beasts in the cultivation world. Leopard cats were low-level magical beasts, and it was only because they had few natural enemies within the Infinite Sect that they could roam about so freely. In the wild, they occupied nearly the bottom of the food chain. That was why leopard cats gave birth to more than ten kittens in each litter: only in this way could they avoid extinction.

Yao Qian suppressed her growing urge to pick up the kittens. A mother beast that had just given birth was at its most aggressive. Her bond of trust with Big Black was not yet deep enough for her to touch its babies.

Instead, she poured a basin of beast milk for it. “Have some milk, too.”

What one ate was what one replenished. Big Black had ten babies to raise, and that was a truly daunting task.

Jin Xiuer learned immediately that Big Black had given birth. Curious, she came over to take a look. When she saw the ten tiny balls of fur, a smile spread across her face, and she readily took out a piece of mid-level magical-beast meat.

“Give this to Big Black as an extra meal.”

Jin Xiuer raised insects, so she kept magical-beast meat stocked year-round. Seeing the piece of meat, Yao Qian could not help laughing.

“Your insects really do eat better than you do.”

These days, when they wanted something special, they could afford no more than low-level magical-beast meat. Mid-level meat was simply too expensive.

Jin Xiuer said ruefully, “Exactly. I am counting on this wilderness expedition to let me hunt several high-level magical beasts. I will store the meat and eat it slowly.”

Most storage bags had no preservation function. At best, they could delay spoilage by a few days compared with leaving something outside.

Jin Xiuer’s magical-beast meat, however, was sealed inside spirit-sealing boxes. In theory, as long as the boxes remained unopened, the meat could be preserved for at least ten years. Her insects could eat it, and they would finish all the meat long before ten years had passed.

Yao Qian’s initial unease about the wilderness expedition had gradually turned into anticipation. In recent days, all she had heard was talk of the various rewards to be gained from the expedition. Fortunately, she usually kept to herself, so she had not been influenced too deeply. Many young disciples were already so excited that they could hardly wait to set off.

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