Owl

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Thinking about all of the messes he was actually involved in, Xu Yan hurried to shut up Xie Yi - who had no consideration for any of it being a problem.

QingQing giggled over the embarrassed Xu Yan.

When sunset came, the group had covered a considerable distance.

“We are stopping here”, Xie Yi said at some point of time without warning.

Everyone ground to a halt, looking at him with questioning eyes.

“Why stop now? There is still daylight left we can use”, one of the guys complained.

Xie Yi lowered his eyes at him. “If you want to find a better camping spot somewhere farther down the road, go ahead. I, at least, will stay here where it’s convenient and not risk it for another bit of ground covered.”

Xu Yan glanced around.

They were near a clear little stream, on a very even patch of ground. There were no high brushes close by, only lush green grass.

The trees were without animal marks and gave them cover while not growing so close to each other that there was no space for a camp.

“I agree, this place seems pretty good”, Sheng Mu said to everyone’s surprise. As unhappy as he looked to be agreeing with Xie Yi, he did not want to let his temper and pride control his ability to make good decisions.

When Sheng Mu spoke up, the rest agreed readily enough - Sheng Mu was their senior, they had fewer problems following his words.

Xie Yi did not spare them another gaze and got to readying a tent for himself and Xu Yan.

“You two will be sharing one?”, QingQing asked after setting up hers surprisingly nimbly. In fact, the greatest reason why Xie Yi was not finished yet was the numerous arrays he was drawing and the talismans that were being pasted everywhere.

“Yeah”, Xu Yan answered her, looking up from starting a fire.

Thankfully, he had shared a bed with Xie Yi often enough as kids. By now, he had no second thought about sharing a tent - which was still more space and less awkward than a bed.

“I’m not giving you MingMing, though”, Xie Yi complained from the side, pulling the beast over and into his arms. “He’s my pillow.”

Xu Yan laughed out loud. Xiao Yi never shared Mingtian during sleeping time.

“Does he allow that?”, QingQing asked in surprise. She knew canines, and like most animals, they weren’t exactly happy about having someone heavy sleep on them.

“Sure”, Xie Yi said with a shrug. “And it’s comfy.”

“Your poor beast”, Xiao Lu humpfed maliciously. “An owner like you must be hard for it to bear.”

Xie Yi stopped in his movements. Only his head turned to her, all emotions having fallen off.

With his cold eyes, he stared her down until she was completely tense. Only then did he speak in a dark, even tone. “Partner. He. Don’t talk about Mingtian like he is some thing.”

Mingtian nuzzled his face peacefully.

Xie Yi snarled at the girl another time before refusing to look at her again. “It’s the little rabbit with you that you should feel bad about.”

Even if he did not care about how the rabbit lived, he did not agree with how she treated it.

The pink beast had its horns cut off and teeth shortened, simply so that it would look cuter. Xiao Lu cuddled it all day, even if it resisted and wanted to get down.

Just because it was not as intelligent as Mingtian, Xie Yi did not think that it did not deserve to be treated as an independent being. He disdained the fact that she kept it as a pet.

Xiao Lu stuck up her nose and stalked into her tent in anger. None of the guys interjected.

Quietly, QingQing came over and squatted down next to Xie Yi. “...There are a lot of people who don’t treat spiritual beasts, especially of lower levels, as their partners.”

“I can’t understand the concept”, Xie Yi growled. “What do you keep pets for? If it’s useless, I don’t need it with me all the time. If it has uses, it’s my partner who works with me.”

He brushed his hands into Mingtian’s fur, scratching the beast’s throat. Mingtian, not worrying about it, let the other reach around his weak points.

“And this one is family”, Xie Yi added in a pouting one, earning a large lick over his face. With a disgusted sound, he rubbed the saliva off to the wolfish laughter of the canine.

“I don’t think Xie Yi is the type to even think about livestock”, Xu Yan mumbled. “What about those? Or the guard dogs of the sect?”

“Unneeded. Don’t care. Don’t need.”

“You’re eating the meat, though.”

“I would hunt for it if I had to.”

“You simply dislike the thought of pets, huh? Where does that stem from?” Xu Yan gave him a sideward glance. He hadn’t known about Xie Yi thinking like that before.

The black-haired young man tilted his head up to stare into the woods.

Some of his female subordinates had had pets. He had accidentally killed some when they annoyed him. The women had shrieked so much that he thought his ears would fall off but the elders had forbidden him from killing them.

One of the elders had had a pet - a fat dog of a supposed rare species. It occupied a whole room, did nothing but sleep and eat, and loved biting Xie Yi’s stuff. He wasn’t allowed to kill that, either.

He had been ordered to watch over that dog sometime. Because it was annoying, he had locked it outside. Because it was too stupid, it had starved after howling continuously for several days.

He hadn’t checked because it was simply being whiny. Turned out it couldn’t hunt.

He had been punished for that.

Stupid pets who didn’t know how to do anything.

With a dark face, Xie Yi began to grumble under his breath. So much annoyance because of some useless things! “They’re troublesome, that’s all.”

“I sense a personal vendetta”, Xu Yan whispered in a secretive tone. “What would you do if Mingtian turned useless one day?”

“He’s family, he’s allowed to be useless”, Xie Yi defended the beast, hugging him protectively. 

Mingtian howled.

“I don’t think he likes that you are considering the possibility of him being useless”, QingQing laughed, holding her hands before her mouth.

Mingtian proved his agreement to her words by starting to bite on Xie Yi’s arm, not even hard enough to leave indentations.

Knowing his partner, Mingtian did not sleep next to Xie Yi’s head this time, even though the young man asked for it. Instead, he moved to the entrance of the tent and laid flatly before it, towards the boys’ feet.

Xie Yi accepted it wordlessly and curled up, half closing his eyes.

He could hear nothing from QingQing’s tent. Xiao Lu must have still been awake as she appeared to toss and turn. Sheng Mu was still moving around quietly and Chen Hu was conversing with Song Lan.

He could hear the annoyance in their whispers, although he couldn’t make out the words. Either way, it was likely about him.

Xu Yan fell asleep easily enough - although he wasn’t out often and had initially been nervous, Xie Yi’s presence as an abnormal powerhouse was quite reassuring and he was tired from the journey.

Xie Yi breathed out slowly, trying to get into the mood for sleeping.

After an hour of nothing but empty thoughts while being awake, Xie Yi began to move around in hopes of finding a better position.

Turned to Xu Yan, he stared at the peacefully sleeping guy, when suddenly he felt something around his foot.

Glancing down, he found Mingtian with a raised head, looking at him. The nimble scorpion tail was lightly placed over Xie Yi’s feet as if to reassure them that Mingtian was still there.

Seeing that, Xie Yi pursed his lips.

He had spent so many nights outside before. Mingtian was far more powerful than any little guy that they could encounter in this place.

Mingtian would not sleep for now, so Xie Yi did not need to worry about anything.

The comforting thought allowed the young cultivator to fall asleep almost right afterwards.

Owl

Meanwhile, Shi Yue notices he had made too much breakfast. Ying Hua gives him a very long stare that has him coughing awkwardly. Xue Hua sticks around, obviously a bit lonely.