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He was so exhausted... Wen Zhihao sighed, after an entire night of cultivation via sleeping. Seems like he should take another nap to recover.
Wen Zhihao touched the side of the bed, that was already cold and guessed that Sun Fuyu has already left for his morning routine. He was still so energetic, completely unlike him. Wen Zhiyan sighed again, turned over and fell asleep peacefully, his cultivation stirring like a peaceful lake... Slowly, something was changing...
Sun Fuyu has worked hard the entire morning, completing each his cultivation arts move a hundred times, gracefully dancing with the sword.
After a few hours he was finally satisfied, his legs trembling a bit from the force he used in his sword techniques and the previous night... cough, he once again took the lead for Wen Zhihao. He couldn't blame him though, as Dual Cultivation was something they both equally enjoyed.
Sun Fuyu, lost in his thoughts, returned to their place. He loved this early morning weather, with sun shining and birds singing.
He returned in great mood, opening door to their bedroom, expecting Wen Zhihao to be laying in bed, but he saw nothing but empty sheets.
Sun Fuyu blinked in confusion, getting up so early? That was unlike him.
He checked the kitchen, and the other rooms but found no one.
'Was there an emergency capable of making Wen-ge rise up early?' he pondered in confusion.
He returned to their bedroom, intending to tidy up the sheets when suddenly a sleepy creature crawled out from underneath the sheets and stretched lazily.
Sun Fuyu looked closer at the creature, and determined it was a regular cat.
It had a long fluffy fur, mainly black with white paws and pattern on its chest. He bent down to pet the creature, asking gently,
"Did Wen-ge bring you here?"
The cat blinked and meowed at him. Then it looked down at its furry paws and meowed again, this time with shock.
Wen Zhihao was indeed shocked. How did he turn into a cat after just sleeping for a while? It really scared him for a moment, what if he had transmigrated again? Thankfully Sun Fuyu returned quickly, dispersing his worry of going to another world without a warning.
Wen Zhihao walked over to Sun Fuyu and meowed again, but the other didn't understand his speech and rubbed his head again. Wen Zhihao's body started vibrating with what he realised was a purr. He rubbed against Sun Fuyu, relishing the fresh vibrant scent that was always on Sun Fuyu. It was even more pronounced once he turned into a cat with keen smell, thought Wen Zhihao, narrowing his eyes with pleasure.
Hold on, he was distracted again. He was supposed to reveal his identity to Sun Fuyu. How could he tell him that he was a cat, when the other didn't understand his speech?
Wen Zhihao jumped off the bed, feeling the soft and springy feeling under his paws. There's no way he could write with those.
Wen Zhihao looked as Sun Fuyu searched the room for hints as to where he might have gone to, and curled up on a soft pillow on the floor comfortably, thinking about how to communicate as a cat. He was not too anxious over turning into a cat. It was the cultivation world where all sorts of odd things happened. Some people got put under weird spells and turned into leeches, or slapped with a talisman that made them speak in tongues. Compared to being turned into a cute cat it could have been worse. He was more worried that his boyfriend would worry and look for him fruitlessly, which was why communication was his top priority right now.
Wen Zhihao looked Sun Fuyu all over from top to bottom and had an idea.
He walked over to Sun Fuyu, tail sprung up high and rubbed against his leg forcefully.
Sun Fuyu who suddenly got bumped into by a cat with surprising strength, causing him to lose balance a little: ?
What kind of cat was this? Did Wen Zhihao bring it from the beast enclosure? But a cultivator could easily detect a beast cat from a regular cat, and he felt no magic beast qi coming from the cat.
"What's wrong?", asked Sun Fuyu, bending down to the cat's eye level.
The cat bumped its head against his leg again, and walked over to the door, meowing at him.
Sun Fuyu understood this action, "You want me to go after you? Do you know where Wen Zhihao is?"
The cat meowed again and walked out through the door, fluffy tail swishing, as it walked on without looking back,
Of course I know where he is, thought Wen Zhihao, I am him.
But he kept on leading Sun Fuyu to a certain spot.
It was a place in the middle of the forest, in the middle of a tree clearing where sun was shining right at the perfect intensity and where the ground was soft and perfect for a nap. Wen Zhihao really took to this place, always going there for afternoon naps after lunch.
Wen Zhihao laid down on the grassy ground and patted the ground next to him with his paw, while Sun Fuyu watched with growing shock. This place... this gesture... why did it seem so familiar to him?!
"Wen-ge???"
Wen Zhihao meowed with affirmative tone and closed his eyes to get some sun. It really did feel great to sunbath as a cat, no wonder cats did it so often.
"Wen-ge how did you become like... this?"
Wen Zhihao didn't know how to reply, how could he communicate as a cat anyways?
Sun Fuyu thought for a while....
"Forgive me Wen-ge but I've had an idea!!"
He quickly picked up Wen Zhihao and holding him in his arms, jumped on his sword.
"To the Beasts enclosure!"
Sun Fuyu masterfully flew on the sword, while petting Wen Zhihao the entire time.
"Wen-ge, your fur is so soft."
"Meow."
"Wen-ge, does it feel good when I pet you?"
A purr-meow: "Meowrrp."
Soon after, they were standing in the beasts enclosure.
Sun Fuyu set him down.
"You should be able to communicate with the cat beasts, right?"
Wen Zhihao tentatively glanced at the beasts in the enclosure, most of whom looked like fluffy cats and said,
"Hello? Anyone can understand me?"
To Sun Fuyu it sounded like a few meows, but a commotion immediately broke out amongst the sleepy beasts in the enclosure.
"Sleepy human?"
"Where? Where's sleepy human?"
"Hi sleepy human, where are you?"
To his shock, Wen Zhihao could suddenly understand their words without a communication talismans! Sleepy human, was that his name among them? Quite fitting, he thought. He would indeed stop by the beast enclosure often to get a good nap.
Since the beast communication talismans didn't work on a regular cat that he became, the second best path was to get him to communicate with the beasts and to let beast cats relay his words back to Sun Fuyu.
Wen Zhihao nodded along, hearing this plan, and was set back on the ground by Sun Fuyu, where a group of sticky cats suddenly surrounded him, some even trying to lay down on him, forgetting that he wasn't human-sized anymore.
Wen Zhihao was flattered and overwhelmed by their affection, so he backed away and jumped up gracefully to sit on the fence, which was thin enough so that the beast cats couldn't crowd him, and wide enough for a cat to comfortably sit on and restrain the unruly kittens.
And so, an impossible scene unfolded before the beast trainer's eyes, who were glancing there from time to time:
A regular cat, sitting on a fence and commanding a dozen of ferocious beasts even they couldn't convince to do anything they refused to do!
Was this a power held by mortal cats, or were they this bad at training? A bunch of beast trainers suddenly doubted their own existence.
Sun Fuyu listened to the beast cats' dialogue, who were relying Wen-ge's words back to him and suddenly understood something,
"So, this transformation happened during your sleep? Wen-ge, could it be..."
"Wen-ge, let's go find your master! I believe she will be able to help us with that."
Sun Fuyu distributed treats amongst the beast cats as thanks for their help, and grabbed his Wen-ge again, who settled in his arms comfortably.
It did feel awkward the first time he was being held, but first time raw and second time ripe, as he started to like this feeling of being held in Xiao Yu's warm reliable arms.
Being a cat was not that bad, thought Wen Zhihao, purring comfortably as they made their way to Elder Liu's quarters.
On their way, no one stopped them, aside.... from one person.
Lin Yijun looked at the cat held in Sun-shidi's hands from top to bottom.
"Why are you bringing a cat with you on a sword? It's dangerous to the animal if you scare it like this."
Sun Fuyu, who was contemplating how to explain to someone that his Dao companion turned into a cat: ...
Wen Zhihao was also roused from his nap, stretching lazily and glancing at Lin Yijun.
He just had to interrupt them on their way, huh.
Wen Zhihao jumped from Sun Fuyu's sword to Lin Yijun's sword gracefully, showing no fear at all. He rubbed against Lin Yijun's leg, who froze in place. Then he looked up and meowed cutely at Lin Yijun, whose face had the look of utter shock on it.
"O-okay, you may pass..." Lin Yijun was immersed in the bliss of having been chosen by the cat, completely forgetting what he was lecturing Sun Fuyu about earlier.
Wen Zhihao jumped back onto Sun Fuyu's sword and climbed to his shoulder and the two of them left quickly.
Sun Fuyu chuckled and rubbed his head,
"I didn't realise you could manipulate people like that."
Wen Zhihao meowed, meaning:
"Guess that's in cat's blood."
Soon, they reached Elder Liu's place and Sun Fuyu went inside quickly,
"This disciple greets the elder."
Elder Liu was not happy about being disturbed,
"What's wrong? You're not one of my disciples, so please be fast. I have to get back to a date with my girlfriend."
"I'm not your disciple, but... he is."
Sun Fuyu presented sleepy Wen Zhihao in his arms. Wen Zhihao glanced at his master and thought, could his master's knowledge of talismans help him?
Elder Liu looked at the cat in his arms, "I don't recall taking in a cat as a disciple..."
Wen Zhihao yawned, not having gotten his mid-day nap.
Elder Liu froze, "Disciple Wen?"
Wen Zhihao meowed obediently.
Elder Liu sensed no cultivation fluctuation coming from the seemingly normal cat. But, his lazy disposition was indeed just like her infamous disciple... He didn't even come to her by himself, having someone carry him in his arms all the way. But, he was still her disciple and she had to do something to help him.
Elder Liu listened to Sun Fuyu's thoughts regarding him becoming a cat.
"The cat beasts had relayed that he became like that in his sleep, and Wen-ge usually cultivates during his sleep. I have a suspicion this was caused by a Qi Deviation during his cultivation, perhaps he encountered a breakthrough and he turned into a cat briefly..."
Elder Liu nodded, and asked,
"And what's your idea on how to cure this state?"
Sun Fuyu replied, "This disciple was hoping that Elder Liu would have a talisman to help with the state of Qi Deviation, or something similar."
Elder Liu chuckled, "I'm afraid I have no such talisman, if there was such a talisman no one would be having Qi Deviations. But I have something perfect for you which might be able to help. You're a young couple, right? Take this."
She tossed them a scroll, which Sun Fuyu quickly identified to be a Dual Cultivation manual.
Sun Fuyu blushed,
"Is this... for us?"
"Yes, it only requires physical contact and is good at soothing the soul. Try it at home. Now, if you excuse me, I have a date to attend."
Wen Zhihao touched the scroll curiously, but couldn't read it in his present state of being unable to use qi. Guess he would have to wait for Xiao Yu to explain it to him.
But after Sun Fuyu tried the method with him...
Who would have predicted that he would suddenly appear naked in a human form on top of Xiao Yu???
Wen Zhihao touched his nose, a bit embarrassed and proposed to use a better... more in-depth cultivation method now that he had a human body again. Xiao Yu would definitely not be disappointed!