NOVEL NEXT 19. Drenched Tiger
After their usual banter, the conversation between tiger and system finally turned serious.
Though lazy, Jiang Mo wasn’t entirely indifferent to her situation. She immediately asked about the daily quests: “A single daily quest only gives 2000 experience points. That’s barely enough for half a level now, and after level 12, it won’t even be half. It’ll be just a fifth. With the experience needed for leveling up doubling each time, these daily quests you’ve unlocked seem pretty useless, system.”
If the system had a face, Jiang Mo would have seen it roll its eyes. “Host, can’t you be less greedy? When you were getting 1 experience point per day of sleep and 5 per pill, you weren’t complaining about 2000 experience points.”
Jiang Mo could hear the sarcasm in the system’s mechanical voice, but she didn’t care much. “That was then, this is now. I now have a Spirit Nurturing Pill worth 500 experience points, an entire storehouse of pills, and the entire Xuanqing Sect supporting me… Tell me, if you were in my position, would you still care about 2000 experience points a day?”
Jiang Mo wasn’t stupid, and her math skills were decent. She knew that at higher levels, the experience required would be astronomical. What good was becoming an adult at three thousand years old if she’d still be useless after three millennia of idling?
The system, at a loss for words, could only reveal: “Don’t worry, host. The experience from daily quests increases with your level. Plus, the quests are simple. Today you just had to pick a peach and give it to someone. You completed it in no time. Aren’t you happy to get free experience points every day?”
At this, the little white tiger’s golden eyes flickered, seeming slightly guilty. But this assurance was enough; Jiang Mo wouldn’t be immediately disappointed with the long-awaited daily quests.
She then asked about the points, especially the point mall, which she was extremely curious about.
However, the system was evasive on this topic, mumbling that she should wait until she had 100 points to activate the mall. Then she could browse and buy whatever she wanted by saving up points.
Jiang Mo eyed the system orb suspiciously for a while, feeling it was being shifty, but decided not to press further. After all, she was guaranteed at least 10 points from daily quests now. It would only take ten days to save up enough. How hard could it be?
As the tiger and system finished their conversation, Jiang Mo realized Yun Qingyu had disappeared. She looked around.
The system informed her: “While you were talking to me, lying down, your caretaker thought you were asleep and went behind the screen.” It habitually scanned but was blocked: “There’s an anti-prying barrier behind the screen. Logically, your caretaker might be changing clothes or bathing. Do you want to take a look?”
Jiang Mo’s tiger face instantly flushed, and she swatted the system away again. She felt the system must know something, and this system baby was growing up much faster than her, learning bad habits so quickly!
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Yun Qingyu had indeed gone to bathe. When she emerged from behind the screen, she had changed into fresh clothes. Her black hair was still neatly tied back, but traces of moisture clung to the strands, subtly softening her cool demeanor.
The little white tiger didn’t dare sneak behind the screen to watch the beauty bathe, but that didn’t stop her from resting her head on her paws to watch the beauty emerge. Everyone appreciates beauty, and admiring someone attractive with appreciative eyes was surely not wrong. As for the earlier incident under the peach tree, that was her own private embarrassment. If even the other party hadn’t noticed, who could blame her?
People are always busy; mortals hustling for their livelihoods, cultivators striving for immortality. But the little white tiger was different. She neither worried about survival nor intended to cultivate, so she had plenty of time to waste as she pleased.
She had spent her days on the spirit boat like this: Yun Qingyu cultivating, Jiang Mo lying by her legs watching her cultivate.
Today, Jiang Mo was doing the same as before, when suddenly she found her gaze shifting upward. The beautiful, cool Senior Sister Yun had once again grasped the scruff of her neck. After a moment of eye contact with her innocent tiger eyes, she carried her behind the screen.
What are you doing? What are you doing? I wasn’t planning to peep!
The little tiger stiffly waved her paws in struggle, but her strength was no different from a kitten’s to Yun Qingyu. Taken behind the screen, she indeed saw a room full of misty vapor. Looking closer, she discovered that hidden in Senior Sister’s simple room was a pool of spring water, apparently a hot spring.
Judging by the steam, it must be a hot spring, right? Or perhaps the spirit spring often mentioned in stories?
Before Jiang Mo could think further, her hind paws touched the water’s surface, and she instinctively retracted them. Felines generally dislike water, not because they can’t swim, but because they hate the feeling of wet fur. Even divine beasts seemed not exempt from this, and although Jiang Mo still had a human soul, her body’s instincts made her averse to bathing.
“Don’t you have cleaning spells? Why do we need to bathe? And this is your bathing pool, Senior Sister. Letting me wash here, aren’t you afraid it’ll be full of tiger hair afterward?!” The little white tiger curled up entirely, mewing “aow, aow.”
Yun Qingyu looked at the little tiger curled up in her hand, her eyes a mix of helplessness and amusement. She still coaxed in her cool voice: “Be good, soak for a while. It’ll be good for you.”
Oh, so it is a spirit spring.
Jiang Mo thought this, her curiosity piqued, but her body stubbornly refused to let her fur get wet. Unfortunately, regardless of her thoughts, when Yun Qingyu actually lowered her into the spirit spring, she had no room for resistance. In an instant, she became a drenched tiger.
“Blub, blub,” she blew two bubbles as she surfaced. Her fur floated soft and graceful underwater, her four little paws paddling through the water with ease. But her head above water looked rather pitiful. The wet fur clung to her skin, making the originally fluffy little tiger suddenly seem much smaller, her golden eyes full of innocence and accusation.
Yun Qingyu was silent for a moment, then wordlessly reached out and pushed her head under too: “It’s alright, you won’t choke. You’re too weak now; your head needs to soak as well.”
“Glub, glub,” a string of bubbles rose as the little tiger sank to the bottom.
The system orb flickered as it followed underwater. Though it said nothing, Jiang Mo could tell it had come to watch the show.
The annoyed host swatted the system away for the third time today, peering through the water at the figure by the pool. Whether it was an illusion from the hot spring or not, she felt a warm current flowing through her body, a comfortable warmth just like leveling up in a game. Even without other effects, just soaking like this was actually quite enjoyable.
But she was a petty tiger. She’d remember this grudge against her caretaker for throwing her in the pool and pushing her head under!