Having said that, she turned and ran so fast that she disappeared from Ji Yunqing’s sight in the blink of an eye. Looking at the empty porch, Ji Yunqing’s thoughts drifted away, his usually gentle face tinged with melancholy, his brows unconsciously furrowed.

“Junior Uncle, I’ve brought your kitten back.” Cong Yue held up the spirit pet with both hands and offered it to Si Fanqing.

Si Fanqing took it casually, the doubt in his eyes almost condensing into droplets and spilling out. His spirit pet seemed to like this skinny little girl very much.

Spirit pets bond with their owners, and logically shouldn’t be close to anyone else, let alone a little girl he had just met.

“You…” Si Fanqing couldn’t help but ask Cong Yue hesitantly, “Have you raised a spirit pet before?”

He was extremely curious.  If he didn’t figure out why his spirit pet was close to Cong Yue, he wouldn’t be able to sleep, tossing and turning all night. His beautiful eyes were so tired they almost resembled a panda’s.

“No,” Cong Yue replied truthfully, “I only raised an ordinary kitten. She wasn’t a spirit pet.”

Seeing the rare gleam in Junior Uncle’s eyes gradually dimming, Cong Yue didn’t want to see him sad, so she added, “It was a kitten I picked up, one of her legs was injured. I bandaged her and raised her for a year…”

“What happened then?” Si Fanqing saw her head drooping and she didn’t continue, unable to resist his curiosity, he asked another question. As soon as he spoke, he inexplicably regretted it, making him seem eager to know what happened next.

Cong Yue looked up at him and replied softly, “She got sick and couldn’t be cured.”

Ever since meeting Cong Yue, her eyes had always been sparkling, like tiny stars scattered across the black night sky.

For the first time, Si Fanqing saw a dejected expression on her face, and a strange sense of guilt arose in his heart. Perhaps, he shouldn’t have been so harsh on her, and he should have spoken more gently.

“You…” Si Fanqing hesitated for a long time before finally asking her directly, “Where is your home?”

Cong Yue casually prevaricated, “I don’t remember.”

Si Fanqing assumed that this child was lonely and had suffered a lot, losing her past memories, and his guilt deepened.

However, before he could express his apology, Cong Yue suddenly stepped forward and touched the spirit pet’s head, carefully asking, “Junior Uncle, can I keep your kitten for a few days?”

Si Fanqing choked, the guilt and pity that had just emerged instantly vanished. He really had nothing better to do than feel pity for a dirty child who treated his spirit pet as a kitten. It was ridiculous.

“No.” Si Fanqing hugged the spirit pet tightly and turned to leave angrily, his pace quickening, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Cong Yue looked at the empty space in front of her in bewilderment, rubbing her tired eyes. She had… angered Junior Uncle again?

Why was Junior Uncle always angry? Cong Yue was puzzled.

On her way back, Cong Yue remembered Junior Uncle arguing with Master, saying that she was Master’s illegitimate daughter raised outside. Master seemed angry after hearing this.

She knew who she was. Master was just her Master, not her unnamed and untitled father, as Junior Uncle had guessed.

“Fanqing, you take them to practice cultivation.” After breakfast, Master instructed several Junior Uncles to take several juniors to practice their skills.

Junior Uncle glanced at Cong Yue, who was assigned to him, and walked to Master with a cold face, pointing his finger back, “Assign her to someone else.”

He didn’t deliberately lower his voice, allowing Cong Yue to hear his rejection clearly.  Having been at Jingyue Sect for over three months, she gradually understood Junior Uncle’s thoughts, knowing that he still remembered her treating his spirit pet as a kitten.

In fact, she couldn’t be blamed. The spirit pet had become increasingly cat-like lately. It was ferocious in front of others, but once it was in Cong Yue’s hands, it immediately became clingy and affectionate, rubbing against her neck, just like the wild kitten Cong Yue had picked up when she was young.

Cong Yue ran to Si Fanqing, tightly grabbing a piece of his sleeve, and looked up at him pitifully.

“Junior Uncle, I want to cultivate with you.” Fearing that these words weren’t persuasive enough, she added, “Junior Uncle’s cultivation is high, following Junior Uncle to cultivate will surely be very promising.”

The child’s words left Si Fanqing speechless. He let Cong Yue hold his sleeve, forgetting to move for a long time.

“Cong Yue, if you don’t want to cultivate, then go out.” This was the fifth time Si Fanqing had reminded Cong Yue. From the moment she sat down, only an incense stick of time had passed, yet Cong Yue had been distracted no less than five times.

At first, Si Fanqing turned a blind eye, pretending not to see. But Cong Yue’s actions were too exaggerated, and she showed no sign of restraint, squinting and looking around, her gaze intentionally or unintentionally falling on him, Si Fanqing couldn’t ignore her.

“All the senior brothers and sisters are diligently cultivating, you insist on coming, but you don’t learn well, what does that look like? Go stand outside and be punished.”

“Yes…” Cong Yue slightly widened her eyes, stood up, and cautiously looked at Junior Uncle.

On the first day of cultivating with Junior Uncle, she was frequently reprimanded publicly, and Cong Yue felt a little distressed and wronged.  Was it her fault that she squinted slightly when practicing? Not entirely.

Junior Uncle had gone to Master’s door to complain, saying that Cong Yue’s eyes were black and round, and when she stared at people, they were especially creepy. Cong Yue took it to heart and tried to avoid widening her eyes in front of Junior Uncle. This led to Junior Uncle’s misunderstanding, publicly accusing her of not concentrating on her cultivation.

She walked slowly towards the outside, three steps and then two steps back, the senior brothers and sisters inside were silent, no one dared to plead for her in front of Junior Uncle. The juniors knew that pleading would be useless, and would only make Junior Uncle furious, increasing the punishment, and even affecting others.

“Don’t let Cong Yue follow me to cultivate tomorrow.” After dinner, Si Fanqing, with a cold face, came to Ji Yunqing’s courtyard and directly stated that he didn’t want to lead Cong Yue in cultivation anymore.

Although Si Fanqing’s cultivation was high, he was only thirteen or fourteen years old. Ji Yunqing treated it as a young person’s moodiness and didn’t take his words seriously, patiently persuading him, “With you leading the juniors in cultivation, they can only make progress. Why are you so awkward?”

Si Fanqing stood there without speaking, and didn’t intend to leave. After a long time, so long that Ji Yunqing almost thought he was being awkward with him, he heard Si Fanqing say impatiently, “I can’t control her.”

Si Fanqing looked like he was very angry with Cong Yue.

“Oh?” Ji Yunqing raised an eyebrow slightly, feeling a little interested, and asked, “What do you mean?”

Si Fanqing suppressed his displeasure, turned his head, and said truthfully, “She doesn’t concentrate during cultivation, she’s always distracted. Sometimes she squints and looks around, sometimes she widens her eyes and stares at me…”

“It’s creepy?” Before he could finish, Ji Yunqing suddenly interjected.

Being much older than Si Fanqing, after a little thought, he guessed the reason more or less. He didn’t intend to continue arguing with him, Ji Yunqing waved his hand and whispered, “Go, rest early.”

The next morning, Cong Yue waited for half a stick of incense in the courtyard, but didn’t wait for Junior Uncle, nor did the other senior brothers and sisters who were cultivating together.

She found it strange and quickly ran to Junior Uncle’s room, hesitated for a moment, and knocked on Junior Uncle’s door, “Junior Uncle, are you awake?” But no one answered.

As she was peering into the window, she suddenly heard a voice from behind her, “Little Cong Yue, why didn’t you go to practice?” It was the Fifth Uncle who was in charge of meals in the kitchen.

“I’m waiting for Junior Uncle.” She answered truthfully.

Fifth Uncle raised his eyebrows, looking surprised, “Your Junior Uncle took several juniors and left early. You… overslept?”

Left early?

Realizing that Junior Uncle had left her behind, Cong Yue felt a mix of emotions. It must have been because she hadn’t “concentrated” during her practice the day before that Junior Uncle punished her like this.

A flame of anger began to flicker in her heart, with the potential to spread. Junior Uncle didn’t want to lead her in cultivation, and secretly changed the meeting time.

Thinking about it, Cong Yue felt wronged again. She clearly didn’t want to scare Junior Uncle, so she deliberately squinted her eyes when looking at people. Junior Uncle misunderstood her, even leading the senior brothers and sisters to ostracize her.

Lying on her bed at night, tossing and turning, Cong Yue felt more and more wronged, various emotions welled up in her heart, and the anger in her heart burned even more fiercely. Since she didn’t catch up with Junior Uncle’s cultivation during the day, Master asked Fifth Uncle to practice with her.

Fifth Uncle was very kind, Junior Uncle was too bad… Cong Yue scolded Junior Uncle in her heart, and quietly got out of bed.

“Meow… meow… meow…”

In the dead of night, several meows came from the courtyard. The juniors, tired from a whole day, were fast asleep, and no one woke up.

Si Fanqing turned over, his right hand habitually reached out to his side, but he didn’t touch the spirit pet. He instantly woke up, the meows outside the window had already disappeared.

“Did anyone enter the courtyard?” Si Fanqing asked the cultivator on night watch, who shook his head blankly, “Junior Uncle, no one came in. Only Cong Yue…”

Si Fanqing immediately became alert and asked, “What about Cong Yue?”

“Cong Yue had important business to see the Sect Master and went out.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Si Fanqing moved like the wind, disappearing in the blink of an eye. The spirit pet wasn’t in the room, and Cong Yue was sneaking out in the middle of the night without sleeping, it must be related to her.

Following the feeling from the spirit pet, Si Fanqing went all the way to the back mountain. A thick smell of decaying corpses hit him, Si Fanqing suddenly came to his senses, his expression changed, he had actually reached the top of the canyon, with an abyss below.

Although it was a place where spiritual energy gathered, because of the constant miasma of corpse qi, unruly demons often visited, few people from the sect came here to cultivate.

“Meow… meow…” A meow came from deep within the canyon. Si Fanqing panicked for a moment, leaning forward, trying to listen more carefully, when his lower leg was suddenly hit by something hard, and he trembled violently.

Without time to look back, his whole body fell uncontrollably. Si Fanqing tried his best to fly upwards, but still couldn’t avoid being covered in corpse qi and blood.