Chapter 43: The Two Treasures Fight
He saw Silly Girl cultivating outside the cave immediately when he got home.
When she saw that he had returned with a cell phone, she came up to him and took it away.
Her icy cold gaze was as if she was warning him not to touch the cell phone.
w.a.n.g Hu suppressed his laughter and obediently acted as though he was confused.
The next few days panned out exactly like what he had expected.
Silly Girl didn’t allow him to touch the cell phone at all. She drove herself fuming mad every day whenever she used the cell phone. On top of that, the angrier she was, the more she wanted to continue looking at the cell phone.
The way she was trying so hard to suppress her anger terribly amused w.a.n.g Hu.
They also fought another two times after that, which w.a.n.g Hu took all the more pleasure in.
Meanwhile, he also secretly observed the situation using the other hidden cell phone.
It had taken only a short few days for the news about his family to completely spread and develop on the Internet.
With the help of an invisible force, it seemed like the entire China had come to know of his family during these short few days. Additionally, the mainstream opinion was also positive.
w.a.n.g Hu was happy to see that because it was indicative of China’s sincerity and amicability and that they wouldn’t take any aggressive action against him and his family.
Just like that, a period of relatively peaceful days went by, day by day.
On this day, Big Treasure and Little Treasure scampered out of the cave and raced toward where the cell phone was placed.
Awooo, awooo~!
“Daddy, Little Treasure wants to watch Cardcaptor Sakura[1].”
Awooo, awooo~!
“No, Big Treasure wants to watch Rainbow Cat & Blue Rabbit[2]! The Rainbow Pierces The Sun[3]!”
The two little fellows got into an argument right away.
Roar~!
“No, Rainbow Cat is boring!”
Little Treasure raised her head and shouted at Big Treasure.
Roar~!
“You can’t say that! Rainbow Cat is a good show! Dancing Fire Tornado[4]!”
Big Treasure didn’t back off one bit. In fact, he even bared his teeth and brandished his claws a little, raising both front paws and gesturing wildly as he did so.
Little Treasure was already pouting by now.
Roar~!
“It’s not like you’re a cat anyway. You’re a tiger so you can’t use Dancing Fire Tornado.”
Roar~!
“Mommy said that the cats are va.s.sals to us tigers. I can do everything that they can so I can also use Dancing Fire Tornado!” shouted Big Treasure in an awfully loftily.
Little Treasure glared furiously at Big Treasure, smacking her paw against the ground a couple of times angrily.
Roar~!
“No, you can’t. I wanna watch Cardcaptor Sakura!”
Roar~!
“You’re not human anyway. What’s there to watch?”
Big Treasure didn’t back off at all.
Awooo, awooo~!
“Little Treasure is mad! You’re a stinky big brother!”
Roar~!
“You’re also a stinky little sister, then!”
Awooo, awooo~!
“Little Treasure’s gonna hit you!”
Roar~!
“Big Treasure’s not scared of you. Sakura isn’t as strong as Rainbow Cat. Big Treasure’s the strongest!”
Roar~!
“Sakura is the strongest! Oh, wind, I—Little Treasure—command you. Release!”
Little Treasure shouted huffily and pounced at Big Treasure.
The moment Big Treasure saw that, he also let out a shout and pounced toward Little Treasure.
Roar~!
“Dancing Fire Tornado, the ninth stage!”
The two little fellows bared their teeth and brandished their claws at each other, waving their short little legs as they became entangled in a fight.
Shortly after, snowy-white fur became covered in dust, and they even shouted as they fought.
Awooo, awooo~!
“Oh, lightning, I—Little Treasure—command you. Release! Destroy Big Treasure the stinky big brother!”
Awooo, awooo~!
“Good will always triumph over evil! A stinky little sister will never win her big brother in a fight either. Dancing Fire Tornado, the tenth stage!”
Two tiny little figures constantly twisted, turned, and rolled about on the ground. w.a.n.g Hu, who was a short distance away, was rendered speechless by the sight.
However, he had also somewhat gotten used to it. He didn’t know when it exactly started, but at some point in time, those two little fellows had started to fight with each other, especially after they started to watch those nonsensical cartoons.
To argue in favor of what they liked to watch—as well as to fight over what they should watch, they had started to fight even more with each other.
On top of that, they even shouted awfully embarra.s.sing stuff while they fought.
w.a.n.g Hu continued to cultivate while he watched them ‘apathetically’ at the sidelines, allowing the two little fellows to fight as they pleased.
He would never admit that watching those two little fellows fight was actually pretty interesting. In any case, tigers had strong bodies so it wasn’t like anything bad would really happen anyway.
Besides, were there any tiger cubs that didn’t fight?
Of course, while he was secretly more than happy to watch, he naturally didn’t let it show.
Roar~!
“Alright, stop fighting.
“Big Treasure, you should give in to your younger sister. Little Treasure, you should also give in to your elder brother.”
“Hey, don’t attack his eyes, Little Treasure.”
“Alright, stop fighting.”
Gentle roars constantly rang out, but the two little fellows didn’t pay w.a.n.g Hu any heed at all. They continued to shout names of the moves as they fought.
All of a sudden, the look in w.a.n.g Hu’s eyes changed, and his tone became stern.
Roar~!
“Alright, stop fighting.”
At once, Big Treasure and Little Treasure seemingly received a shock, and they stepped away from each other reluctantly though they continued to look huffy and indignant.
The next moment, a figure emanating a cold aura stepped out of the cave. The look in her eyes instantly changed when her gaze fell onto the dust on the two little fellows.
Roar~!
“Who allowed the two of you to fight again?”
The anger in her voice made both Big Treasure and Little Treasure hang their heads in aggrieved sadness.
Roar~!
“Mommy, Stinky Big Brother didn’t give in to me. He even said that… said that Rainbow Cat is stronger than Sakura,” said the pouting Little Treasure.
Roar~!
“Rainbow Cat is stronger than Sakura. You’re a stinky little sister!” shouted Big Treasure stubbornly.
Di Baijun could feel the corner of her eye twitching. She, who had already been in an irritable mood lately, became even angrier.
Those two little rascals. None of them gives me even a moment of peace.
The next instant, her glaring eyes s.h.i.+fted to the jerk who was the culprit of it all.
Roar~!
“Is standing there and watching the only thing you know?”
w.a.n.g Hu promptly lowered his head in admittance to his mistake and chose not to argue in defense of himself.
Roar~!
“I was wrong, Baijun.”
Di Baijun’s brows drew together—the sight seemed somewhat familiar to her. Then, she suddenly became so angry that she felt as if she couldn’t even quite catch her breath. As she stared at that well-behaved act of w.a.n.g Hu’s, she really wished she could give him a tight slap across the cheek—because she had suddenly remembered that was exactly how Big Treasure and Little Treasure had owned up to their mistakes whenever they misbehaved recently.
Then, they would cleanly forget all about it and continue to make mistakes after that.
That jerk must have been the one that led Big Treasure and Little Treasure astray.
Roar~!
“Mommy, Big Treasure was wrong.”
Roar~!
“Mommy, Little Treasure was also wrong.”
Before Di Baijun could dwell on it any further, the two little fellows’ voices as they admitted to their wrongdoings also rang out one after the other. They watched their mother nervously and even gave up on fighting with each other over whether Rainbow Cat or Sakura was stronger.
Di Baijun found herself short of breath from anger again. As expected, they had learned it from that jerk after all.
w.a.n.g Hu, who found the situation not quite right, spoke carefully at this point.
Roar~!
“Baijun, I’ll bring Big Treasure and Little Treasure to take a bath, alright?”
Roar~!
“Scram!”
Di Baijun let out a furious roar.
w.a.n.g Hu immediately sprung to action. He glared at the two little fellows who were also awfully well-behaved at this point, and they obediently followed after him.
As Di Baijun glared at the three big and little jerks’ disappearing back views, she smacked her paw against the ground angrily and ran over as well.
That jerk was incapable of doing anything at all. He couldn’t even clean Big Treasure and Little Treasure properly when he bathed them.
On this hot and sweltering summer day, the family of four soaked themselves in the refres.h.i.+ngly cool water pool.
Alright, so w.a.n.g Hu had jumped into the pool while enduring the sharp-as-knives look in Silly Girl’s eyes and pretending that he hadn’t seen anything.
In the end, Di Baijun cast a glance at Big Treasure and Little Treasure—who were frolicking happily—and merely gave a cold snort, ultimately choosing not to say anything.
That jerk, I’ll eventually make him pay once and for all someday.
w.a.n.g Hu breathed a sigh of relief. This was the first time that the whole family was taking a bath together.
As expected, one must have the courage to try and break through hurdles in everything one did.
The limit to Silly Girl’s tolerance existed precisely so that he could break through it.
After thinking about it happily for a while, w.a.n.g Hu glanced at Big Treasure and Little Treasure and spoke.
Roar~!
“Baijun, Big Treasure and Little Treasure should be able to cultivate by now, right?”
At the mention of proper business, even though she continued to take on a disdainful att.i.tude, Di Baijun replied properly nevertheless.
Roar~!
“They are still too young. There’s no need for them to.”
w.a.n.g Hu frowned a little. He thought for a moment before he replied.
Roar~!
“Even if that’s the case, we can’t just allow them to play like that every day!”
Di Baijun glared at him, her countenance cold, haughty, and domineering.
Roar~!
“Playing is exactly what tiger cubs should do. They can start cultivating when they’ve naturally reached the Transformation Realm instead.”
Roar~!
“Why must they wait until they naturally reach the Transformation Realm before they start to cultivate?”
w.a.n.g Hu was rather puzzled.
Di Baijun gave him a disdainful glare again. In the end, seemingly because she thought of how she had beaten up that jerk quite a few times recently, she decided to grant him a slightly impatient reply.
Roar~!
“Big Treasure and Little Treasure may have awakened their White Tiger bloodline, but their awakening was ultimately postnatal so they ended up being held back for two to three years. They need time to naturally nurture themselves and make up for their congenital deficiencies.
“Waiting until they naturally reach the Transformation Realm to cultivate will be beneficial to their foundation even if we have to make up for it a little.”
She paused for a moment. Then, a slight air of arrogance surfaced in her voice, and she went on.
“When they naturally reach the Second Realm, they’ll be able to cultivate the Tiger clan’s most powerful imperial scripture and bring out the White Tiger bloodline’s true might.”
w.a.n.g Hu’s heart pounded hard. The Tiger clan’s most powerful imperial scripture!
The sound of it alone was enough for one to know that it must be something extremely impressive.
Of course, he would want it, too.
Roar~!
In a serene yet somewhat curious tone, he asked in a seemingly nonchalant manner, “The Tiger clan’s most powerful imperial scripture? Is there really something like that?”
Di Baijun cast a glance at w.a.n.g Hu and gave a disdainful reply.
Roar~!
“The Tiger clan’s most powerful imperial scripture is something that only those of the royal bloodline and the White Tiger bloodline can cultivate.
“Those without the White Tiger bloodline, including even the elders, are not allowed to cultivate it. Neither are they able to.”
Then, she paused for a moment and—for some reason—added, “Even I couldn’t cultivate it back when I hadn’t awakened my White Tiger bloodline yet.”
After she spoke, Di Baijun turned away and refused to look at that jerk anymore.
She was secretly irritated, however. Why was she explaining the matter in such detail to that jerk?
w.a.n.g Hu, whose attention was on the cultivation technique, didn’t notice these little things either. The news was a bit of a shame to him, and his interest in acquiring the technique was extinguished.
Evidently, that was a technique that only those with the White Tiger bloodline could cultivate. It was impossible for anyone else to cultivate it. He, however, didn’t have the White Tiger bloodline.
They didn’t talk about anything else after that. After Di Baijun bathed Big Treasure and Little Treasure in such a way that they were nice and clean, the family went home.
After summer came autumn. Winter seemed to have come especially quickly.
Snow started to fall one sudden night.
As w.a.n.g Hu watched the heavy snow seal off the mountain once more, the plan that he had been secretly forming for a long time now completely emerged.
He decided not to wait any longer and set off to set the plan into motion and make preparations for the future.
[1] A j.a.panese manga series written and ill.u.s.trated by the manga group CLAMP
[2] Refers to Rainbow Cat & Blue Rabbit: Legend of the Seven Swords, a Chinese animated series in mainland China
[3] Refers to one of Rainbow Cat’s sword moves in the animated series
[4] Refers to another of Rainbow Cat’s sword moves in the animated series