Spirit Cultivation

"Xiao Wen, it's not nice to argue with your sister. You have to be nice to each other." Xuefeng sat down both sisters in front of him and started scolding them.

"Why are you even scolding us, you said you will be gone for a moment but you were away for almost an…" Xiao Wen scolded back, feeling wronged, but Xuefeng suddenly placed his finger on her lips, silencing her, saying, "Shush, we are not talking about me right now. We are evaluating your behaviour."

Without letting her speak, he turned towards Yiren who was still cuddling a white rabbit into her chest and said softly, "Yiren, Lulu is a tigress. She is a predatory Spirit Beast and she needs to eat meat as that's her diet. Such a rabbit is a great snack for her."

"But she is so cute, sob… Look at its begging eyes. It doesn't want to die. And It's a real one, not the one I made from Qi…" Yiren said quietly, having tears in the corner of her eyes. He could feel with their connection how she cared for it right now and her tears were genuine. Even he felt bad for the poor rabbit as he shared her feelings.

"Of course it doesn't want to die… That is its natural instinct. Tell me, what else can we do other than eating it? If we let it go, it will be probably eaten by some other predators anyway." Xuefeng said warmly as he rubbed her cheeks and wiped her tears away.

Yiren thought for a moment and suddenly asked with puppy eyes "...Can't I keep it?"

"What? You want to keep a rank one rabbit? Lulu will probably eat it if it comes with us you know?" Xuefeng found her idea quite funny but also cute. Only Yiren would think of keeping such a pet.

"Nooo, she won't! Lulu, you tell them, don't you want to have a new friend?" Yiren cried out in defence and turned towards the White Tigress behind them. A moment ago she was staring at the rabbit with a desire to eat it and saliva appearing at the corner of her lips but when Yiren called out to her, she quickly acted normal.

"What do you think, wouldn't she be a nice friend?" Yiren asked once again as she raised the rabbit by its belly and showed it to Lulu. The rabbit looked at Lulu paralysed from the fear and Lulu, having her favourite snack in front of her, had to struggle mentally to not bite its head off right away.

'Hehe, there is no way Lulu will resist her favourite snack from such distance. She will definitely eat it.' Xiao Wen thought as she smiled, waiting for the scene which could prove her point.

Unfortunately, seeing Lulu's reaction Yiren was not happy and added, "If you guys don't become friends, I will stop giving you your favourite belly rubs, Humpf."

Hearing Yiren, Lulu immediately stopped her behaviour and leaned over to lick the rabbit with a gentle face. "What?!" Xiao Wen exclaimed with her face turning ugly seeing what happened. Xuefeng was also shocked to see such a scene.

"Hehe, great. Lulu is the best! Let me give you some rubs. You like that?" Yiren laughed happily and hugged Lulu while stroking behind her ear and belly afterwards.

"Purrrr…" Lulu happily growled, forgetting about her snack in exchange for the care of Yiren.

After Yiren gave Lulu enough rubs, she ran back to Xuefeng and pleaded, showing a well-behaved rabbit in her hands, "Xuefeng! Lulu agreed! Can I keep her now? I will feed and protect her. You will not even see that she is here."

"Sigh, fine. You can do what you want. As long as it doesn't trouble us in our journey. Are we all ready to go?" Xuefeng said, having no reasons to reject her. Searching for a third lady, Wuying. He found her sitting on top of a small boulder near the lake, so he asked Xiao Wen, "What is she doing there?"

"Wuying said she wanted to meditate until you come back. She haven't moved since you left." Xiao Wen said, still mad at her White Winged Tigress, she threw a kemp of grass at her shouting, "From today on, you will eat grass!"

"Haha, get ready to go as we will be leaving soon. I will get Wuying." Xuefeng couldn't help but laugh at her and flew towards the top of the boulder to bring Wuying.

"Are you okay?" Xuefeng asked after landing next to her.

"Xuefeng! You are back. Yes, I was just meditating…" Wuying stood up, opening her eyes right away and showing a nice blue colour, which made Xuefeng sigh in relief.

"Did that blood art trouble you again?" Xuefeng asked after giving her a hug, to which she gently nodded. She didn't try to hide anything from him anymore, knowing she can count on him.

"Hmm, you stopped using your Blood Qi but it is still affecting you…" Xuefeng wondered what could be the reason and asked Ling for her opinion.

'I think it is too late for her to stop using it. Once she started, she can only move forward and maybe try to control this power. Someone must have tampered with that art to bring out its hidden potential, so it has some negative effects on the user's personality.' Ling gave him her theory.

"Did you try to control it?" Xuefeng asked, thinking it might work if he supervises her.

"Yes… But it is hard sometimes… I can only calm down when I'm with you… When you are gone, there is something that awakens inside of me, pushing me to stuff I wouldn't do or say normally..." Wuying nodded, explaining further.

"Don't worry, this time I will be there for you. We will go through this together, okay?" Xuefeng assured her. If his presence could change this much, then he would gladly help her.

"Mhmm…" Wuying agreed happily, feeling that maybe with him she can do it. Picking her up, Xuefeng flew back towards the ladies.

"Yiren, you will fly with your sister on Lulu's back while I will take Wuying with me, okay?" Xuefeng quickly decided on the way they would be travelling and everyone nodded.

Yiren was especially excited as she would be able to fly on Lulu but also with her own sister which she would love to have a sister bond with. The earlier argument between them didn't affect their relationship at all and it might have even tightened it.

Yiren was the older sister but looking at the way she held her pet while also cuddling into her sister's chest with her back, it didn't seem like it. One would even mistake Yiren for Xiao Wen's daughter if one didn't know them.

'Should we start to spawn the clones which could scan the ground for any Fate Qi activities?' Xuefeng asked Ling, recalling their earlier plan.

'I can hold up to ten if we stay at a low altitude. We can separate them in the distance of ten Li to each other. I should still be able to control them and scan the whole area. I'm very sensitive to Fate Qi so no one should be able to hide if we meet them on our way. I doubt we can meet anyone in the wilderness and we should rather search in the cities.' Ling proposed her plan.

'Let's do this then.' Xuefeng nodded and Ling got to work right away. She was much faster than him so she did it for him. Suddenly, one identical clone spawned next to Xuefeng, followed by another two.

Watching this, Yiren opened her mouth wide open, not knowing such a thing was even possible. Soon, ten copies of Xuefeng appeared next to them and all of them had a cloak on them, hiding their appearances.

"Fluff, look at your papa, he is so talented and handsome. Mommy will also have to work hard to catch up to him." Yiren held her rabbit which got its name thanks to its fluffy white fur and pointed at Xuefeng. Surprisingly, fluff stared at Xuefeng for a moment with an intelligent gaze and squeaked before cuddling back into Yiren's arms.

"Sister, will you teach me how to fight? I want to be useful to Xuefeng." Yiren suddenly asked out of nowhere, making Xiao Wen smile.

"Sure, but it will be a lot of hard work you know?" Xiao Wen agreed but still gave her a warning.

"I know. In exchange, I can teach you how to act cute. With sister's beauty, no man would resist you." Yiren nodded and proposed payment which made Xiao Wen blush, instantly thinking off Xuefeng. She wanted to hit Yiren on the head for proposing such a deal, but then she realised that Xuefeng does seem to have a weakness to cuteness.

"Okay… But don't tell Xuefeng…" In the end, Xiao Wen didn't have anything to lose, so she agreed quietly, which Yiren accepted it happily, "Deal."