Leaving the formerly barren mountain side behind, Yue Wan carried both Yang Meng and Sofie as she started running with all she could up the moonlight mountain.
Luckily for the three of them, it looked like whatever tentacle monster was lying beneath the ground would take some time to come out.
…
The top of the moonlight mountain slowly became visible in front of them, with what looked like a small gathering of trees surrounding it. Grass had slowly crept away from the gathering of trees and were covering everything in the surroundings, with only a few stone sticking up here and there.
After running with all she could for over 30 minutes straight, while carrying both Sofie and Yang Meng. Yue Wan slowly collapsed at the grass beneath them.
"A-are you okay Yue Wan?" Sofie asked in a worried voice, while she looked down at the exhausted Yue Wan greedily breathing in the fresh air surrounding them.
"Hah… Yes, I'm fine… Hah… I don't know why, but… Hah… The air around here is fantastic… Hah…" Breathing heavily while talking, Yue Wan laid with her back on the grass trying to catch her breath. The earlier sprinting was exhausting to the extreme, even if the qi inside her had started to strengthen her body.
At least it was better compared to someone in the qi gathering realm, who's qi had yet to start strengthening the body in any way.
"We will take a break here for 5 minutes. After that we will go to the top and leave!" Yang Meng said in an uncertain voice.
"I-is something wrong?" Sofie said nervously after seeing the uncertainty on Yang Meng's face.
"No… I just found it weird that trees could grow so high up in the air… And the air on top of mountains are normally way thinner than back on the ground." Yang Meng said in a slightly unsure voice.
"Is that so?" Sofie said as she tilted her head small confused head to the side. Sofie had never climbed a mountain and only seen them in the distance, so she had no clue whether what Yang Meng said was true or not.
At least she knew that he would normally be right in the things he said, it was just that Sofie had no clue why it mattered that the air was good and there were trees here…
Maybe Yang Meng liked thin air and hated trees?
Thinking this, Sofie's gaze towards Yang Meng turned a little weird.
*rustle*
A rustling sound from a bush close to the gathering of trees in front of them interrupted Sofie's thought as all three of them turned and looked towards the bush.
"Meow~" A small meowing sounded out from the bush as a small cat jumped out.
Sofie was about to rush ahead and embrace the cute creature in front of her, but Yang Meng grabbed onto her shoulder and held her back.
"What did you stop me for?!" Sofie said in a slightly angry voice as she stared at the person preventing her from embracing the fluffy looking creature in front of her.
"It's a wild cat!" Yang Meng said in a cautious voice as he looked at the small cat, that was only a few dozen centimetres in length.
"So, what!? I have seen cats before, they might be aggressive sometime… BUT, they are not dangerous at all!" Sofie said annoyed, trying to break free from Yang Meng's grip.
"Wild cats are different from normal cats. Wild cats can cultivate and the one in front of us should have reached around stage 2 or 3 of qi gathering in strength, barely being a rank 1 demon beast. Carelessness could cost you your life!" Yang Meng said in a serious voice as Sofie slowly stopped her resistance.
"B-but I want to cuddle with it…" Sofie said in a determined voice, while her eyes suddenly started shinning with a strange light as she looked towards the small wild cat demon beast lazily making its way towards them.
"Should I kill it?" Yue Wan asked as she slowly took out her sword, pointing it towards the wild cat slowly making its way over towards them.
"NO!" Sofie shouted out anxiously. Quickly standing in front of Yue Wan, blocking her way towards the lazy wild cat.
"It is still a demon beast… If you really don't want to kill it, just catch it. From what I know, it should not be that much stronger than a normal cat as both cultivators and demon beast normally only start to grow stronger upon reaching the qi condensation realm or the latter stages of rank 1 demon beast." Yang Meng said in a slow voice, trying to make sure he did not offend Sofie by saying anything bad about the cute creature in front of them.
If the wild cat demon beast was as lazy and relaxed as it looked, Yang Meng would not care if Sofie played with it, but if it was not…
Yang Meng did not think any longer and just cautiously stared at the lazy wild cat slowly making its way over.
"Really!?" Sofie asked extremely excited.
"Yes… Just be careful!" Yang Meng answered with a hint of worry on his face, making him look like a worried older brother.
Getting approval from Yang Meng, Sofie smiled happily before slowly drawing closer to the wild cat in front of them.
"Meow~" Seeing Sofie approaching, the wild cat meowed cutely at her before it sat down on the grass and started licking its fur. Paying no attention to the approaching danger.
Getting closer and closer to the fluffy little wild cat, Sofie was now standing directly in front of it and like a thirsty man in a desert finding an oasis, Sofie launched herself towards the wild cat.
…
"MEOW!" Panicking upon seeing the giant human suddenly launching itself flying towards it, the wild cat quickly tried to get out of the way while thinking to itself.
Damnable human! It was fine if you just passed by me, but why did you suddenly launch yourself at me like some madman? I'm not a higher-ranking demon beast, I will get crushed under you!?
The wild cat almost felt tears bursting out from its eyes, as it looked at the giant body of Sofie close to landing on top of it.
Having resigned itself to its fate of being crushed beneath one of the giant humans, the wild cat was shocked to suddenly find itself safe.
Looking around itself to find out what had happened to the giant human about to crush it. The wild cat discovered to its horror that it was held tightly in the arms of the giant human, which was about to crush it moments ago.
Oh, great gods of all cats on the earth… What have I done to deserve this fate!?
The wild cat thought miserably to itself as it obediently resigned itself to the fate of becoming a perfect hugging pillow.
…
"Its so fluffy~ and it doesn't do anything at all! Maybe it likes me?" Sofie said with a smile on her lips, while hugging the little wild cat in her embrace.
"Of course it likes you! Anyone would~" Yue Wan says with a smile on her lips. Enjoying the scene of Sofie hugging a cute demon beast.
"Y-yeah, sure…" Yang Meng says in an uncertain voice. Clearly seeing the looks of absolute despair on the little wild cat's face.