Chapter 84
Chapter 84
Guided by the plot, Zhu Yin easily found the two swaddled infants at the foot of the mountain.
She was not very good at judging the ages of human babies. She only knew that they were tiny, pitiful, and fragile.
As the male and female leads of this world, the two infants were naturally beautiful. Their plump little faces were fair and tender, and their large eyes glistened with moisture. Completely unaware of what had happened to them, they smiled as soon as they saw Zhu Yin.
They even babbled at her, though no one could tell what they were trying to say.
Zhu Yin bent down and picked them up.
The mountain was not safe. People searching for the children were still prowling nearby.
According to the plot, Zhu Yin had to hide their names and identities, travel roughly five thousand kilometers from place to place, and finally settle in Nandu.
Nandu had an imposing name, but it was a wilderness abandoned by the immortal sects, where spiritual energy was thin.
Mortals incapable of cultivation lived there alongside mediocre cultivators and mixed-blood half-demons and half-devils.
Barbara had jumped out of its Host’s arms when she bent down to pick up the children. Now it tipped up its round head and asked, “Host, are we going to Nandu now?”
Zhu Yin looked at the two babies in her arms and hesitated. “Human children need food, baths, and someone to care for them. We should go into the city first and find them a wet nurse.”
As she spoke, black mist spread beneath her feet. In the blink of an eye, the woman holding two children and the cat beside her vanished without a trace.
Zhu Yin found an inn. She was a young woman traveling alone with two infants and no one else by her side. Everyone who saw her imagined their own story and looked at her sympathetically.
Zhu Yin bought a great heap of clothing and toys for human babies, but paused when it came time to find a wet nurse.
She received a notification before Barbara even needed to remind her.
Later in the plot, the male and female leads recalled their childhood: their first master had raised and taught them alone, pouring all her care into them…
The key word was alone.
There would be no shortcut here.
Zhu Yin lowered her head and looked at the two infants in her arms.
They were remarkably well behaved. Zhu Yin had carried them the entire way, yet they neither cried nor fussed. They merely gazed about with their round black eyes.
They looked fun.
But if she had to hold them herself all the time, they would no longer be fun.
Forbidden from finding a living wet nurse, Zhu Yin carried the babies back to the inn.
When she left the inn the next day, two people followed behind her.
Both were exceptionally tall and concealed beneath black cloaks that hid every trace of their appearance. An intense and ominous aura radiated from each of them.
Each held a small infant.
The mission panel seemed to flicker. In the end, it chose to remain silent.
The two babies wailed at the top of their lungs.
Zhu Yin tried coaxing them a few times. When that failed, she fed each of them a cup of medicine.
Barbara asked in alarm, “Host, what did you feed them? They are still tiny babies! You cannot give them strange things to eat.”
Zhu Yin waved a hand confidently. “Do not worry. It will only help them sleep. I added Immortal Spirit Spring Water, so it cannot harm them.”
As she continued south, two “bodyguards” who looked thoroughly disreputable followed behind her. This time, no one stared at her with pity.
Everyone kept their distance and dared not approach at all.
The original plot never explained how a Foundation Establishment cultivator traveled to Nandu with two infants while evading the eyes and ears of their pursuers.
In that case, Zhu Yin saw no need to restrain herself.
She bought a luxurious carriage, had two intimidating black-robed men follow behind it, and carried an expensive-looking little spirit beast in her arms.
In this ostentatiously lavish fashion, she joined a merchant caravan bound for Nandu.
What about the two infants, you ask?
Barbara watched helplessly as its Host fed them each a cup of some unknown pitch-black substance.
And so the two fair, tender human babies transformed with a “pew” into two fluffy kittens.
They still had no idea what had happened. Whenever they saw Zhu Yin and babbled in an attempt to speak, all that emerged was a stream of meows.
At first, the caravan treated Zhu Yin with great courtesy because of her mysterious identity and lavish spending.
Later, people saw with their own eyes that each of the two immensely powerful black-robed guards carried a kitten. Someone finally asked about them out of curiosity.
Zhu Yin stroked the head of the pink cat in her arms. “Oh. Some wild brat from nowhere took advantage of our Barbara. These are the two kittens Barbara gave birth to.”
Barbara, suddenly made a mother without enduring any pain: “…”
With tears in its pink eyes, the cat acknowledged the two kittens.
Throughout the journey, the two guards looked after the kittens. Zhu Yin visited whenever the mood struck her, playing with them for a while.
To everyone else, this only made her seem even more mysterious and unfathomable.
Cultivators were precious. Powerful cultivators received tremendous respect and courtesy even when they entered a great clan as guest retainers.
Yet these two sinister but clearly formidable black-robed cultivators tended two little spirit pets with all the tireless obedience of the lowliest servants.
That meant either this black-clad woman was powerful enough to enslave them,
or her background was formidable enough for her to employ cultivators of such strength as servants.
Either way, she was not someone they could afford to offend.
The cultivators hunting the two infants passed the caravan more than once without noticing anything unusual.
One month later, they arrived in Nandu.
Zhu Yin had none of this world’s spirit stones. But wherever mortals lived, gold and silver seemed to serve as universal currency. She spent some time digging a large lump of gold out of a corner, gave it to Heipao, and sent him to purchase a residence.
Heipao was one of her two black-robed servants. The other was named Heiwu.
Inside the house, the transformation potion’s effect on the two babies was undone. A month of travel had not left them listless. Instead, both had grown noticeably plumper.
After all, Zhu Yin had fed them Immortal Spirit Spring Water every day.
The male and female leads were already children of destiny with peerless constitutions and talent. Now Immortal Spirit Spring Water, which could improve their very foundations, nourished them daily.
If any great immortal clan or sect encountered the pair, they would probably beg the children to join them.
What Zhu Yin did not expect was that after the transformation ended, the baby girl on the right peered at her changed paws in confusion. Then she tilted her head and studied Zhu Yin. After a long moment, she cried out loudly, “Meow!”
After spending a month as a kitten, she truly thought she was a cat!