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The Tianwu Sect’s recruitment point was, surprisingly, located in a small village. However, after learning about the village’s background, Pei Bufan was left speechless.
This was a village composed entirely of demon cultivators.
The spirit pets that cultivators commonly form contracts with are a type of demon and can be called beast cultivators, but they do not represent the entirety of demon cultivation. Spirit pets are limited to beast types, whereas demon cultivators include not only beasts but also plant types, as well as spiritual beings born from the natural nourishment of spiritual energy. As long as a cultivator is non-human, they are considered a demon cultivator.
Just like the head of this village, a Banyan Tree Demon with over ten thousand years of cultivation. He was just one step away from ascending.
Besides him, the village also had a giant python at the Integration stage and a nine-tailed fox at the Spirit Division stage.
This was absolutely1 the most badass village that no one dared to offend!
The cultivator at the registration desk was also a plant type: a Peach Blossom Demon.
She wore a revealing outfit, her arms propped up on the table, the two surging mounds on her chest looking as if they were about to burst out from between her arms. When she saw Pei Bufan walk over in a set of ill-fitting clothes, her peach-blossom eyes winked at him.
Pei Bufan, who had no feelings for women, acted as if he didn’t see it.
The Peach Blossom Demon, who hadn’t intended to seduce him but just wanted to tease him a little, was immediately indignant. Unwilling to admit defeat so easily, she stood up, one hand casually brushing past her shoulder, causing her already loose clothing to slip down even further. But the man before her… was looking everywhere else.
The Peach Blossom Demon glared, and steeling her heart, she pulled her clothes down even more.
Pei Bufan continued to look left and right, paying her no mind2.
The Peach Blossom Demon was about to explode with frustration. If this old lady takes off any more, my nipples will be out! Can’t you just look once?! This is the first time I’ve met a man so hard to seduce!!
Pei Bufan sighed in disappointment. “There are no handsome guys…” Most of them were female.
The Peach Blossom Demon wanted to scratch him to death. Suddenly, she had an idea. With a twist of her body, her gender immediately changed.
Plants are hermaphroditic by nature!
Sure enough, after she turned into a he, Pei Bufan’s eyes immediately locked on.
The Peach Blossom Demon snorted triumphantly to herself. See, my charm is irresistible; there’s no one who isn’t fascinated by me. Who would have thought that in the next moment, Pei Bufan’s expression would once again turn to disinterest. The Peach Blossom Demon was so angry she wanted to grab him by the collar and ask just what his type was.
Pei Bufan: Ever since meeting Gong Yi, I’ve had a psychological aversion to the outwardly charming type.
The Peach Blossom Demon gritted her teeth fiercely. “What are you here for?!” She was done trying to seduce him; it was too exhausting!
“To register, of course!” Pei Bufan looked at him as if he were an idiot.
The Peach Blossom Demon was struck dumb, then took out a silk scroll with an angry huff. She spread it open, gripped a writing brush, and prepared to write. “Name?”
“Pei Bufan.”
“Race?”
“…Common cat?”
The Peach Blossom Demon looked back at him with an expression that said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Most demon cultivators started as unenlightened plants or small animals. Of course, there were a rare few who were born with inherited knowledge. But a species like the common cat could never achieve spiritual awareness, let alone speak or take human form, no matter how long they cultivated. It was like an egg; even if you nourished it with spiritual energy every day, the most you could hatch would be a chicken that doesn’t get lost, not a phoenix!
Pei Bufan also knew his answer was a bit of a stretch and said sheepishly, “They all think I should be a common cat, but I’m not sure myself…”
The Peach Blossom Demon shrugged and wrote with his brush: “Cat form.” Just another mixed-blood who doesn’t even know what he is. Not surprising. What’s so great about beast races? So what if it’s easy for them to gain spiritual awareness, transform, and have inherited knowledge? They still don’t know who their own ancestors are!
“Have you signed a contract?”
“Um… if I have, can I not join?”
The Peach Blossom Demon looked up at him, his face leaning in close. “You really don’t know anything, do you? Alright then~~ Big sister will be kind and explain it to you.”
Pei Bufan: Sorry, I was too busy making the male lead hook up with shous and walk the path of an overlord to pay attention to the details!
“You know that many human cultivators like to form contracts with spirit beasts. That’s not a big deal. Human cultivators also form contracts among themselves, like master-servant contracts, equality contracts, partner contracts, transaction contracts, and so on. So even a spirit beast raised by a human since birth can join a sect. But! If you’ve signed a master-servant contract, then the most you can do is hang around the outer sect. A master-servant contract is like being branded by that person; between the sect and the master, you can only choose the master. Of course, even if you enter the inner sect, if you sign a master-servant contract with a human cultivator, you are considered to have automatically withdrawn from the Tianwu Sect.”
Pei Bufan knew that human cultivators formed contracts among themselves; people like Zhongyanqing who sought refuge with a major family would sign an equality contract.
“I haven’t signed a contract,” Pei Bufan answered.
“Really? If you’re caught lying, you’ll be expelled from the sect!” The other stared suspiciously at the collar around Pei Bufan’s neck. “Not even an equality contract?”
Pei Bufan nodded affirmatively.
The Peach Blossom Demon put a cross in the last column of the silk scroll and muttered, “That cultivator must be an idiot.” Cultivators buy spirit beast eggs to obtain a young beast and sign a contract. After all, once a spirit beast grows up and develops its own thoughts, it’s not so easy to deal with. The better the aptitude of a spirit beast, the wilder its nature. This one had cultivated to the point of partial transformation and still hadn’t been bound by a contract. Did the master think putting a collar on its neck would stop it from running away?
And here he was, seeking refuge with a sect. Once his wings were fully grown3, he would have nothing more to do with that cultivator.
The Peach Blossom Demon couldn’t be bothered to care. He tossed Pei Bufan a small jade pendant. “In three days, come to the Tianwu Sect.”
Pei Bufan tossed the pendant into his System-provided personal inventory and left happily.
“Where should I go next?”
System: 【Go back.】
“No way,” Pei Bufan whined. “I haven’t had enough fun yet.”
【The transformation card is about to expire.】
Pei Bufan’s body went stiff.
System: 【Mission: Host, please appease the enraged male lead.
Completion Reward: 2000 EXP, 10 Gold Coins, Transformation Card (1/4)
Failure Penalty: Be put on a dog leash.】
“WTF! Wait a minute!” After hearing this, Pei Bufan was instantly Spartan4. “Is that penalty from the System or from the male lead?”
System: 【What do you think?】
Ahahahaha…
“System, which way is home?! Ahhhh!!!!” Transforming back into a black cat, he scampered off at top speed5.
Sword Immortal Valley.
In a courtyard of the Wenjian Courtyard, at the entrance to Ziche Duanyuan’s bedroom. The male lead sat on a rattan chair with a dark expression, holding a thin iron rod in his hands. He slowly bent it, then twisted it into a circle. He bent another piece, twisted it into a half-circle, linked it through the previous circle, and clamped it shut, continuing this over and over. A chain several feet long was already piled at his feet.
By the time Pei Bufan got back to the courtyard in Sword Immortal Valley, he was half-dead from exhaustion. He squatted at the entrance, panting heavily, but didn’t dare take a single step inside.
‘System, is the male lead in there?’ Pei Bufan didn’t dare make a sound, calling out to the System in his mind. ‘Is it possible he hasn’t noticed I ran off?’
System: 【Hehe.】
‘…Damn it!’
With the mentality of getting it over with quickly6, Pei Bufan cautiously peeked half his head around the corner. His big eyes glanced inside, and he was so scared his legs nearly gave out.
“WTF! The male lead is making an iron chain!! He’s hand-crafting a chain out of iron rods that are two fingers thick!! Ahhh!!” Pei Bufan burst into tears7. “I was only gone for a little while, how did he become so terrifyingly brutal?!”
【A little while?】
“Okay, a day and a half! It takes time to travel!” Pei Bufan wailed.
“Not coming in yet?” The male lead’s gentle laugh echoed from the courtyard. “Bufan, hurry up.”
Pei Bufan’s legs went weak, and he collapsed.
QAQ8 Save me!
********
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Reika’s Notes:
- This text was translated by Kotori Translates, and given to BC Novels to publish.
- I helped with the footnotes, formatting, grammar, etc., the usual stuff that is needed to post this on the website.
- Please let me know if there are any errors. Thanks for reading!
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- 绝壁 (juébì) – literally “sheer cliff, but it’s internet slang that is a pun on the word 绝对 (juéduì), meaning “absolutely.”
- 不鸟她 – literally “to not bird her.”
- 翅膀长硬 – literally “wings have grown hard.” A common idiom for when someone has grown up, become independent, and is ready to leave the nest.
- 斯巴达 – internet slang from the movie 300 and the “This is Sparta!” meme. To “become Spartan” means to be shocked, stunned, or to freak out completely.
- 撒丫子 (sā yāzi): A vivid and colloquial phrase meaning “to let one’s feet fly” or “to run away at top speed.”
- 早死早超生 – literally “an early death means an early rebirth.”
- 泪奔 – literally “tear-run.” A popular internet slang term for being so overcome with emotion (sadness, frustration, shock) that you want to run away crying.
- An emoticon of a crying face
There seems to be a mistake in chapter 15. Because it is very different from the end of chapter 14 and the continuation in chapter 16. In 15 Pei Bufan was already lining up to register for the sect by himself, even taking the Demon Revealing Mirror test. Why in chapter 16 Pei Bufan is explained to have just arrived at the village to start the administrative registration?
One sec, I have to check the source, there must have been a mistake somewhere.
Edit: Okay, it should be fixed now.
Poor kitty! 😅
Thank you for the chapter!