Outside Tang Xiaoqi's cave dwelling at Qingxu Temple was a small spirit herb garden dense with spiritual energy. What grew there were not rare spirit plants but mostly low-grade herbs emitting soft glows or having bright colors, night-light moss, rainbow grass, dotted moonlight flowers, and the like. More than an herb garden, it was a carefully tended, childlike colorful garden. The true owner of this garden was not Tang Xiaoqi but that rabbit spirit whose status in Qingxu Temple was transcendent and well-known to all.
Since following Tang Xiaoqi through many storms, especially after absorbing special spiritual energy in the secret realm and greatly increasing its spiritual intelligence, the rabbit spirit's cultivation grew slowly, yet its spirituality, speed, and innate keen perception of "shiny" items reached an almost unthinkable level. It no longer merely satisfied stealing spirit herbs but developed a new, laughable hobby, collecting everything it considered "beautiful." This day, sunny. Tang Xiaoqi sat meditating on a blue stone beside the herb garden, consolidating his cultivation. The rabbit spirit bounced at his feet.
Its snow-white fur shimmered silver in sunlight. Ruby eyes darted around, seemingly plotting something. Suddenly, it stood on hind legs, two front paws rummaging through the thick fur on its chest, expression focused, making satisfied squeaking sounds. Tang Xiaoqi was disturbed, slowly opening his eyes, amused: "Rummaging through your 'treasures' again?" The rabbit spirit pulled out a delicate chain woven from unknown silver fine threads from its thick chest fur.
At the chain's bottom hung a thumb-nail-sized bag, material neither gold nor jade, semi-transparent with natural cloud patterns. The bag's opening was gathered by an elastic golden fine vine, emanating faint spatial fluctuations. This was produced under the rabbit spirit's persistent nagging and materials it somehow obtained, with help from a Chen-discipled student obsessed with Luo Feng's theories at the Peculiar Skills Courtyard, according to some simplified "miniaturized spatial rune" theory. A probably cultivation-world-only, rabbit-specific storage artifact.
Named by the rabbit spirit itself "Shiny Pouch Pouch," treasured beyond measure. The rabbit spirit carefully opened the golden vine with its claw, inserted a paw, and began pulling things out. First were several irregular-shaped yet translucent low-grade spirit stone fragments, refracting gorgeous light in sunlight. It arranged these in a row, sniffing each with its small nose, nodding in satisfaction.
Next was a handful of colorful fine sand, reportedly "acquired" from an extremely hidden shell beach on the East Sea shore, a top treasure in its view. Then were several luminous bird down feathers from some rare ornamental spirit bird it had seized opportunity to pluck. A black stone polished extremely smooth with what seemed like nebula flowing inside; several round, full seeds emanating faint fragrance of unknown spirit plants; a broken jade hairpin still emitting soft white light (suspected from some female disciple's careless loss); even a metal fragment with broken runes pried from some discarded artifact but still shiny. All told, varied and miscellaneous, quickly piling into a small "treasure mountain" glittering with various lights before the rabbit spirit.
These things, in cultivators' eyes, were mostly worthless, just novelties. But in the rabbit spirit's aesthetics, each was a hard-won or skillfully "acquired" supreme treasure. It sat before its "treasure mountain," two front paws on its round belly, ruby eyes full of intoxication and pride. Looking left and right, occasionally adjusting "treasures'" positions with its paw, making satisfied gurgling sounds.
Like a miser admiring lifetime accumulation, plump and cute, making people laugh despite themselves. Tang Xiaoqi watched, helplessly shaking his head yet unable to suppress a smile. The rabbit spirit had become more of a spirit. Its "Treasure Pouch" and collections had become another majormarkleaping bodily into that bottomless demonic energy-surging crack besides its "Elder Tang's spirit beast" identity.
Sometimes it even paraded its "Treasure Pouch" around the sect. Meeting familiar disciples, it would actively pull out several less "precious" shiny trinkets to show off, drawing laughs. Disciples would often feed it spirit fruits or specially made shiny candy pills as "appreciation fees." It thus became one of the sect's most popular "mascots," adding much vitality and fun to Qingxu Temple after calamity's gravity. Of course, it was not always so "generous." Once, Third Sister Liu Yun passed by, saw it arranging collections, thought that broken jade hairpin looked familiar, glanced twice.
The rabbit spirit immediately, like a protective hen, swept all "treasures" into the "Shiny Pouch" in a flash, tightly covered it, face alert, amusingly making even the cold Liu Yun show a rare smile. Another time, it tried to exchange several shiny yet containing faint fire-poison stones with Second Senior Brother Luo Feng for that glowing "calculating crystal board" on his desk used for rune deduction. Luo Feng ungraciously "escorted" it out of the Peculiar Skills Courtyard with a gust of wind, drawing applause from disciples. "Alright, stop showing off, put it away." Tang Xiaoqi saw it never tiring of displaying, reminded: "Careful when wind blows later, scattering your treasures." The rabbit spirit immediately tensed its ears, warily checking surroundings.
Then reluctantly, item by item, it stuffed its "treasures" back into the small "Shiny Pouch," each piece pressed by paw to ensure stability. Finally, it carefully tightened the golden vine, tucked the small bag back into chest fur to hide, patted with paw to confirm, then relaxed, hopping to Tang Xiaoqi's leg, affectionately rubbing. Watching the rabbit spirit's satisfied, carefree appearance, Tang Xiaoqi's heart also felt rare lightness and warmth. In this cultivation world riddled with crisis and danger, having such pure, simple joy accompanying might also be a rare fortune.
The rabbit spirit's "Treasure Pouch" held not only its collected shinies but this cross-species trust, dependence, and joy brought to those around. This unique existence had become an indispensable, beautiful scenery line in Qingxu Temple's peaceful vista.