Chapter 4: The Little Lynx’s Request

When Lin Mo was almost about to give up, Mo Jin finally nodded and hummed in agreement.

Lin Mo lay down on the straw mat, satisfied. After lying on her side and watching Mo Jin bask in the firelight for a while, her upper and lower eyelids began to fight, and she soon drifted into dreamland.

When Lin Mo was in a deep sleep at night, her emotions didn’t fluctuate much; the surrounding energy remained stable and dense, which was of great help to Mo Jin’s cultivation.

Mo Jin’s cultivation speed was not slow; in fact, it was more than twice as fast as that of a spirit with mediocre aptitude.

Mo Jin lowered her eyes. The spiritual energy around her automatically bypassed her and rushed desperately toward Lin Mo—this was perhaps what it meant to be the Heavenly Dao’s favorite daughter.

Lin Mo was a bamboo who had cultivated into a spirit, and she was naturally extremely compatible with the Heavenly Dao and all living things. Although her cultivation was unstable and she had forgotten how to cultivate after gaining intelligence, she could still automatically absorb the essence of the moon at night. Not only could she take this essence for her own use, but she could also bestow it upon all things.

With a light wave of her hand, Mo Jin extinguished the campfire. She pulled out a “Little Bee” robot identical to Lin Mo’s from her pocket and directly woke it up.

“Xiao Mi.”

A red light beam shot out from the robot bee’s eyes, and a mechanical electronic voice sounded: [Xiao Mi is here, my Master.]

The machine then emitted a series of beeps: [Detecting surrounding environment for you. An active machine of the same model has been detected within a hundred meters. They have been automatically merged for you. After merging, Xiao Mi will have a larger display screen.]

Mo Jin’s robot bee slowly flew from in front of her eyes into mid-air and merged into one with Lin Mo’s robot.

With a ding-dong sound:

[Merging complete,] the robot bee’s voice carried a hint of cheerfulness. [Team Number 666, Xiao Mi has equipped a new mall and unlocked new items for you and your teammate. You have spent 100 Shells; your account balance is now 100 Shells.]

[Calculating your livestream earnings for this session. Current livestream traffic: 10 people. Flowers received: 0. Congratulations, you have earned 10 Shells. Total cumulative balance is now 110 Shells.]

[Would you like to continue the livestream?]

Mo Jin refused without hesitation: “No, close the livestream.”

[Xiao Mi understands, closing for Master immediately.]

The red beam in the robot bee’s eyes extinguished instantly. It turned into a small capsule shape and landed in Mo Jin’s hand.

Mo Jin’s fingers lightly rubbed it a few times as her thoughts gradually drifted. She hadn’t lived in the wild for a long time.

This internship was mandatory by the school, but she wasn’t actually bound by the school’s rules; she had only agreed to join Taotie Academy originally because it was convenient to be close to Lin Mo. Since Lin Mo agreed to join the internship, she naturally joined as well. However, she had no interest in livestreaming. She had turned it off from the start and used the initial amount in the mall to buy a military-grade steel knife, then shut Xiao Mi down.

The remaining balance in the mall belonged to Lin Mo, and she wouldn’t touch it. However, it seemed Lin Mo hadn’t used the robot yet; she could give her a reminder later.

Mo Jin put the robot bee away, sat down beside Lin Mo, and began to cultivate. After all, being closer to Lin Mo meant more abundant spiritual energy and faster progress.

Lin Mo woke up once in the middle of the night. Still dazed with sleep, she rolled off the straw mat as soon as her drowsiness faded and insisted that Mo Jin go to sleep, keeping watch herself until dawn.

When the first ray of sunlight hit the coniferous forest, many animals were already awake. Birds on the treetops emitted cheerful chirps, occasionally interspersed with the yoyo cries of elk running and jumping through the shrubs.

The morning breeze carried a hint of coolness as it blew across the grass. As a gust of cold wind passed, a few strands of fluffy dandelion seeds stuck to Lin Mo’s mouth. Her nose felt itchy, and she let out a big sneeze—achoo!

The lynx in the nearby spiritual sphere was startled awake by Lin Mo’s sneeze. It curled into a ball, rubbed its eyes, and wagged its thick, long tail a few times. It looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, its eyes still holding a trace of confusion.

It stretched, straightening its four claws. When it looked up and saw Lin Mo right above it, its tail stood up instantly. It bared its teeth with a fierce expression and took a wary step back.

As soon as the little lynx stepped back, it was bounced back by the spiritual sphere and landed on its butt inside the ball.

‘This little monster is too hilarious.’

Lin Mo’s eyes curved into crescents, her lips hooking up slightly as she provocatively poked the spiritual sphere.

“Meow!” The little lynx immediately leaped up, wanting to act fierce toward Lin Mo, but was bounced down by the sphere. Its entire body ended up bumping around inside the spiritual ball.

Lin Mo could no longer hold it back and burst into loud laughter.

“What are you laughing at, you big b*stard!” Seeing Lin Mo laughing until tears came out, the little lynx became even more agitated.

Its paws scratched around the smooth interior of the spiritual sphere, but it couldn’t grab anything; instead, it just spun in circles inside the ball.

Lin Mo clutched her stomach, laughing so hard her liver trembled. ‘Oh my, how can this little monster be so stupid?’

Mo Jin opened her eyes and witnessed this scene. She shook her head helplessly, turned on the robot bee, and then with a light tap of her finger, brought the spiritual sphere to a standstill.

The little lynx’s arrogance instantly subsided. It blankly poked the sphere, unable to figure out why it had suddenly stopped.

Lin Mo stopped laughing, rubbing her aching stomach as she turned her head.

Mo Jin was sitting on the straw mat, her posture straight and her manner elegant. The white shirt she wore had a few more wrinkles, but it didn’t affect her cold temperament at all; instead, it added a sense of grounded reality to her ethereal beauty.

Lin Mo couldn’t help but sigh. Being this beautiful was truly cheating.

Fortunately, Mo Jin didn’t laugh often. If she were to smile, the stars would surely shift and the mountains and rivers would topple.

Seeing Mo Jin walk over with an expressionless face, Lin Mo silently lowered the hand she had intended to wave in greeting and awkwardly touched the edge of her clothes.

This cold woman really had the magic power to instantly freeze any lively atmosphere.

“Let me out!” The little lynx’s shout broke the silence.

Mo Jin frowned, her gaze turning cold as she looked at the little lynx.

She felt this little lynx was too noisy again.

The little lynx had learned its lesson from Mo Jin yesterday. When it met Mo Jin’s icy eyes, it felt a chill on the back of its neck. It hung its head cowardly, and tears began to patter down.

It sobbed, –I didn’t mean to steal your food. I was just hungry and smelled the fragrance while passing by. Please don’t eat me. My brother is injured, and I have to go home to take care of him.–

The little lynx’s tears gathered into a watery pool in the spiritual sphere, with a tendency to flow more and more. Lin Mo couldn’t stand seeing children cry, so she softened her heart.

“Don’t cry. We won’t eat you.”

The little lynx’s tears stopped instantly. –Really?–

Lin Mo turned her head to peek at Mo Jin and secretly made a pleading gesture toward her.

Mo Jin nodded slightly.

Lin Mo continued to comfort it, “Of course it’s true. How did your brother get injured?”

–Brother was trying to find food for me. He went to hunt elk but fell down a cliff and broke his back leg. Uncle Erhei carried him home. He said it was lucky there was a waterfall below the cliff, otherwise Brother would have died. But Brother broke his leg and can’t hunt anymore. I overheard Uncle Erhei saying Brother needs some good things to recover, so I ran out to hunt. But it got dark and I didn’t even catch a single rabbit.–

Speaking of its brother, the little lynx grew depressed again, tears rolling down like pearls from a broken string.

Lin Mo sighed deeply. This little lynx was too pitiful.

She touched the spiritual sphere and turned to ask Mo Jin, “Mo Jin, do you have a way to help him?”

Mo Jin’s gaze lingered on Lin Mo’s hand. Lin Mo wanted to touch that scruffy little lynx again.

Mo Jin’s eyes darkened, and the aura around her grew several degrees colder as she said slowly, “Yes.”

Lin Mo: “…”

‘Did I say something wrong just now?’

Lin Mo and the little lynx were both overjoyed at the same time, looking at Mo Jin with sparkling eyes.

“That’s great,” Lin Mo said happily. “Where is your brother? Let’s go save him now.”

The little lynx suddenly became wary. It remembered what Uncle Erhei had told it: you can’t let other spirits know where your brother is hidden, or else when they find out he’s injured, they will take advantage of it to eat him while I’m not home and steal everything in our cave.

Seeing the little lynx’s hesitant expression, Lin Mo asked worriedly, “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to save your brother anymore?”

The little lynx said anxiously, –I want to save Brother! But Uncle Erhei said I can’t let others know where Brother is hiding.–

Lin Mo immediately guaranteed, “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt your brother.”

The little lynx scratched its head, looking conflicted, but finally nodded in agreement. –I’ll take you there, but you have to swear to the gods in the sky that you won’t hurt my brother. If you lie, the Heavenly God will punish you.–

‘This little lynx is quite superstitious.’

“Alright, I swear I won’t hurt your brother.”

The little lynx nodded to her solemnly, then its gaze fell upon Mo Jin. Lin Mo quickly stood in front of Mo Jin.

‘Asking the Iceberg to swear an oath? Isn’t that harder than climbing to heaven?’

Mo Jin’s clear, cold voice sounded from behind her: “I swear to the Heavenly God that I will not hurt your brother.”

Lin Mo was stunned. Mo Jin actually swore an oath for the sake of this little lynx.

As soon as she finished speaking, the spiritual sphere around the little lynx disappeared.

The little lynx’s legs tentatively stepped on the ground. The dew on the grass dampened its fluffy paws. It hopped once on the ground, and after confirming it could move freely, it leaped and dived into the dense shrubs.

Like a cunning fish dropping into the sea, in an instant, only the tips of the little lynx’s upright ears could be seen. The dense shrubs were pushed aside in waves, flashing with a faint golden light.

–Follow me.– It glanced back at Lin Mo and Mo Jin, then began to sprint through the shrubs.

Lin Mo followed Mo Jin at a light jog. After crossing about a dozen small mounds, they finally reached the cave the little lynx had mentioned.

The area around the cave was barren, and the sound of a stream could be heard faintly. The entrance was very hidden, surrounded by a thorny fence with only a narrow gap. If one didn’t look closely, it was impossible to tell it was a cave.

The little lynx transformed into a human form, moved the fence aside, and crawled through the entrance.