“Don’t tell me you’re still thinking about that plan from earlier?” Ao Yiyi asked helplessly.
Hearing that, Jin Xin smiled and shook her head. “Of course not. I was just thinking about something else. But speaking of it… after Coal Ball took human form, she really is pretty adorable.”
Ao Yiyi, hearing Jin Xin say that, looked at her in confusion. She couldn’t read minds, so of course she had no idea what Jin Xin was actually thinking.
She simply answered the earlier remark: “Coal Ball is pretty adorable after transforming. She’s a bit like Su Qingyu when she was little.”
“Is she? I feel like she’s way more mischievous than Su Qingyu,” Jin Xin said, tilting her head as she looked toward Coal Ball and Su Qing in the distance.
“Maybe! But… as long as she doesn’t cause some huge disaster, it doesn’t really matter,” Ao Yiyi said with an indifferent expression.
“Is that so?” Jin Xin smiled and nodded. “You think… Su Qing likes kids?”
“I don’t think so…” Ao Yiyi didn’t know why Jin Xin suddenly asked that, but she answered calmly anyway. “I’ve heard her complain about kids plenty of times! They weren’t kids around her, but I get the feeling she doesn’t like kids as much as we think.”
“Really? What a shame… I thought she liked little, tiny people,” Jin Xin said, stroking her chin with a regretful look.
Ao Yiyi was even more baffled.
This girl… was really impossible to understand.
Ao Yiyi sighed internally and decided not to think about it anymore. She simply picked up her teacup and took a sip.
“Even if Sister Su doesn’t like kids that much, I think Hu Lin’er genuinely likes children,” Ao Yiyi added, as if remembering something.
Jin Xin tilted her head. “Oh? I get it… she does seem to like children.”
Jin Xin responded, but even Ao Yiyi could tell it was extremely perfunctory.
Clearly, when it came to whether anyone liked children—aside from Su Qing—Jin Xin couldn’t care less.
Ao Yiyi pursed her lips and didn’t say anything more. She just sat to the side and went back to her book.
Time passed.
In the blink of an eye, more than a month went by.
Over the past month, Su Qing had been quite busy…
Aside from teaching Coal Ball, Su Qing hadn’t neglected the matter of Incense Power—after all, collecting Incense Power was still Su Qing’s most important task.
But it wasn’t only Su Qing handling it. Others naturally helped as well.
So although things were busy, it wasn’t overly exhausting—just… more fulfilling.
As for the Incense Power work, after a month it had only barely gotten off the ground, but at least it was a good start…
If things went smoothly, perhaps one or two years would be enough to build this place into a decent site for collecting Incense Power.
Of course, if things didn’t go smoothly, it might take longer.
Fortunately, Su Qing had plenty of patience.
And while the Incense Power efforts progressed steadily, Coal Ball’s education hadn’t fallen behind either…
Coal Ball was a lazy cat, and she’d made it clear she didn’t want to learn any of it. But under Su Qing’s demands, her learning speed was actually not slow at all.
First, none of it was especially difficult. Second, Su Qing found ways to spark her interest.
Su Qing understood Coal Ball very well—she could completely keep the little creature in hand—so teaching her was naturally easy.
Now, after a month, Coal Ball had fully gotten used to how to be a person… and she’d even learned quite a few characters.
If there was one area where she was truly hopeless, it was arithmetic.
This cat’s brain really didn’t work well for numbers—her math was as bad as it could possibly be—so eventually Su Qing basically gave up teaching her that.
Still, no matter what, at the very least she’d fully adapted to being human.
Of course, even though Coal Ball had gotten used to being a person, once she learned everything Su Qing taught her, she immediately went to Su Qing to learn how to turn back into a cat.
After she mastered returning to cat form, she instantly transformed back into a black cat.
She really carried out her original decision to the letter.
Perhaps… this was some kind of “Rat-Exterminating Divine General” obsession?
Su Qing wasn’t sure, and couldn’t be bothered to care.
In any case, her goal had been achieved.
After Coal Ball mastered switching between human and cat form, Su Qing also taught her how to dress herself in an instant at the moment of transforming.
It was a simple trick, and Coal Ball learned it without much trouble.
That day,
Coal Ball turned into a small child again.
She followed Su Qing around the county town, wandering and buying things everywhere… though Coal Ball, like those sparrows, had no grand ambitions. The point of going out was simply to buy something to eat.
Only, this little one had a very clear target…
She only liked meat. Aside from meat, she didn’t really like anything.
“Why are all the kids around me such foodies?” Su Qing stroked her chin, thinking helplessly. “Oh, right—Su Qingyu isn’t a foodie. That one just likes messing around… Sigh, I haven’t seen her in a long time. I kind of miss her. But I don’t dare go back to see her—if I see her, I’ll probably be unable to leave again.”
Thinking that, Su Qing couldn’t help shaking her head…
And just as she was lost in thought—
Coal Ball tugged on her sleeve and said, “Sister Su, it looks like there’s something exciting over there. Let’s go watch!”
Su Qing was pulled out of her memories. She turned her head in the direction Coal Ball pointed.
There was a huge crowd gathered there, and every so often people cried out in amazement, as if watching some kind of spectacle.
Seeing that, Su Qing raised her eyebrows slightly, her interest piqued…
So Su Qing nodded faintly and said:
“Hmm? Looks like there really is something to watch. Let’s go—since you want to see it, I’ll go with you.”
With that, Su Qing led Coal Ball toward the crowd.
Coal Ball followed excitedly.
When they got close, Su Qing used a little trick and slipped to the front of the crowd.
Once she reached the front, Su Qing could clearly see what “show” this was.
It turned out to be an animal act.
And the one performing… was a dog—a dog so smart it was almost unbelievable, smart to the point it seemed almost human.
Su Qing watched the dog follow its handler’s commands, making all kinds of movements—some that dogs shouldn’t even be able to do—and she couldn’t help raising her eyebrows, feeling both strange and curious.
Su Qing thought: Can a dog really be trained to this degree?
If it were a demon, this level wouldn’t be surprising.
After all, demons’ intelligence—high or low—was never comparable to ordinary beasts.
Even the weakest demon was far, far smarter than ordinary wild animals.
But was this dog a demon?
Su Qing didn’t think so.
The dog was indeed clever and obedient, but Su Qing could tell whether it was a demon or not.
Even though Su Qing’s clone body wasn’t as strong as her true body, it wasn’t so weak that she couldn’t see something like that…
Unless this dog’s cultivation was even higher than hers.
But if it were truly stronger than Su Qing…
How could it be down here in the mortal world performing tricks?
And letting mortals whip it?
Immortals… were extremely prideful.
Even Su Qing would say she’d never go back to being a snake under a snake charmer again.
And Su Qing was already someone who could “lower her pride” more than most immortals—especially among higher-ranked ones.
So this dog absolutely couldn’t be some being stronger than her.
“If that’s the case, then this dog is ridiculously smart—smart in a way that feels abnormal.” Su Qing watched and watched, growing more and more astonished.
Now she understood why such a simple animal act could draw so many people to stop, watch, and gasp in amazement.
Because even Su Qing thought it was incredible…
As Su Qing watched, she saw the trainer look over—more precisely, look toward Coal Ball in Su Qing’s hand.
“This little one,” the man asked with a genial smile, “would you be willing to come up and help me with the act?”
Coal Ball looked at the big dog, then at the man, and finally looked to Su Qing—clearly asking Su Qing’s opinion.
She did want to go, but Su Qing was holding her hand, so she couldn’t just run up on her own.
Seeing that, Su Qing smiled slightly and nodded. “If you want to go, then go. Oh—can I go with her?”
“That’s naturally no problem. If the young lady is worried, you can come along,” the man said cheerfully. He showed no obvious flaw.
Su Qing’s expression didn’t change. Still smiling, she led Coal Ball forward to the dog.
This naturally sparked envy among the surrounding children… since many of them also wanted to get close and touch that “miracle-smart” big dog.
The man understood what everyone wanted, so he smiled and told the crowd he’d invite other children up later too.
That quickly soothed the kids.
Then he returned to the dog, reached out and patted its head, and asked, “Little miss, what’s your name?”
“Qiu’er,” Coal Ball answered reflexively—the name Su Qing had casually given her.
“I mean your full name. A young lady’s nickname isn’t something a lowly performer like me dares to call casually,” the man said with a smile.
Coal Ball instinctively wanted to say “Coal Ball,” but Su Qing spoke first: “Her name? Su Qiu’er. Qiu’er is her given name.”
The man smiled and nodded. “So that’s it. Then Su Qiu’er, what would you like the dog to perform? You can command it yourself.”
Coal Ball heard that and began thinking seriously…
Su Qing stood to the side smiling, not saying anything.
Because her attention wasn’t on that at all, but on the performing dog.
From the moment she approached earlier, Su Qing had been able to smell a scent…
It was hard to describe…
Like a mixture of many medicinal herbs.
As a doctor, Su Qing recognized it immediately.
And beyond that, she also caught a stench of decay, and… the smell of blood.
Su Qing was a curious person…
When she encountered something interesting, she found it hard to resist digging deeper.
And at this moment, her curiosity had reached its peak.
Su Qing stared at the dog closely—so closely that she even used a bit of eye-technique, trying to find any clue at all.
And as she watched—
She really did find something.
With the eye-technique enhancing her vision, Su Qing saw faint stitching marks on the dog’s body.
They were sewn very neatly, but once something had been tampered with, traces always remained.
So it naturally couldn’t escape Su Qing’s eyes…
“Interesting…”
Su Qing stroked her chin. When the act paused, she stepped forward and took Coal Ball’s hand again.
She looked at Coal Ball—who still looked excited, as if she were still immersed in “commanding” the dog—then looked at the performer and asked with a smile, “My little sister really likes your dog. Would you sell it to me?”
Su Qing wanted to test him. If the man agreed to sell, she’d take the dog home and study it slowly. If he refused, then she’d figure something else out.
“T-This… it’s our livelihood, after all. If the young lady wants to buy it, I’m afraid I can’t give you a discounted price,” the man said, refusing indirectly rather than outright.
Su Qing smiled, then took out a piece of gold from her sleeve—about six taels.
“This much. Is it enough?”
Her tone was calm, but it made the man jump in shock.
He stared at the gold, reached out as if to take it, then pulled his hand back, looking conflicted and struggling.
After a brief silence—
“I—I have to ask our troupe’s boss. I’m not the one in charge… I can’t decide.”
Su Qing nodded. “That’s fine. If you still need to perform, I won’t disturb you. Just tell me who’s in charge, and I’ll go to him myself.”
“No, no—no need. I’ll call our boss right now,” the man said quickly.
He hurried to a carriage and spoke to someone inside.
Not long after, an elderly man—over fifty, leaning on a cane—walked over.
His face was full of smiles and he looked rather kindly.
But when Su Qing saw the old man, her eyebrows lifted, and she showed a trace of surprise.
This old man is a cultivator. His cultivation isn’t high, but he really does have mana.
Rate on N.U.
