Chapter 198 - Punishment And Curiosity

Now running on the ground, and currently below the cub in altitude but not laterally, he tries to catch up to the little one while exclaiming. "Hold on little one, I am coming!" With this all happening in such a short instantaneous time frame, Shen Hu keeps pushing himself, trying to make it but still many tens of meters from his cubs, he feels that he might not make it but still maintains his determination to do at least do his best to catch his pup in the hopes that there is at least a chance of her survival.

*Thud

"Oooohhhff, Nnooo!! Please be alright my little daughter." Shen Hu exclaims as he lands on the ground after his little cub lands on his back before falling to the floor. Lifting his paw to rub her head a little, he asks with a serious face. "My daughter please wake up. There is no way you died from that height so stop playing.."

Opening its eyes, the little female divine tiger cub rolls onto its feet before saying to Shen Hu with soul communication. "Ahaha, yay. Again! Again!"

Shaking his head, he mumbles before exclaiming. "You mischievous little trouble maker. How about a time out in a corner first, to think about the scare you caused us all!" With that said, he starts turning into his human form, so as to make it easier to get back up to the top.

Hearing that, the little cub jumps into Shen Hus' arms with her head hanging low. Then Shen Hu looks down and seeing that there are no injuries or other wise, he starts jumping up, side to side, using the pillars to make his way back up to the top.  Trying to make his way up the slippery spikes, he quickly gets up to the top despite slipping once or twice along the way.

Once back at the top, he quickly makes his way to the edge and says. "Ok, down you go little one. Time for your time out." He glares down at her to show his seriousness, despite the puppy like eyes she is making in hopes of getting out of her punishment.

Seeing as doing this did nothing for her, she nods and accepts her punishment. Thus leaping out of his arms and landing on one of the spikes, she sits on her heels as her feet grip tightly onto the spike. Looking out at her brothers and sisters as well as all the others 'having fun' she is clearly sad, and a little disgruntled.

Watching his daughter closely, he feels satisfied that she is now thinking on what she is doing wrong, although feeling slightly conflicted as he walks away thinking. 'It was not just her, but the other three as well who went onto this field. Ugh. What to do? It would not be right to only punish one and not the others as they were all clearly in the wrong. Wait...'

With such thoughts flowing through his mind, he starts heading back to her before asking. "You do realize why you are being punished, right?"

His daughter then replies with soul communication. "It is because I caused you worry right?"

*Sigh. "No, it is because you went against what your mother and I said. However while it is bad to worry us, it would be a seemingly impossible task to not be worried for ones children. Anyways, the reason the others are not being punished right now, is because they will get another punishment later when we are not on this death trap of a training arena." Shen Hu replies before turning away to head back towards Houli not even realizing something important.

As he approaches his mate, she says. "Well it seems the cubs are alright for now. I just hope they do not nearly get killed again."

With a smile forming on his face, he says while turning back to his tiger form. "My love, you know that we cannot protect them forever. Honestly, I figured we would have them for a year and a half, but even you should see their rapid growth. It would likely only be a few more months at the longest that we could keep them before they venture out on their own to learn of the world. We just have to raise them the best we can in the short time we have together, so they will be as ready as we can prepare them."

"Humph..." Houli pouts and then a few seconds later changes the subject. "So how are you doing that. It seems both in your human form and tiger form, you have not the slightest issue with the physical part of this technique so far."

Tilting his head for a moment upon hearing her question, he looks down, and realizing that he is standing as if it were perfectly normal, he thinks to himself. 'What is this? I forgot that I was even walking on these spikes, no wonder my strides felt much longer than normal. ...'

Looking back up he replies to her. "I am not certain that I can really explain it. Although to be honest, I just forgot about the current situation that we are in when trying to save the little cub. It was not until now that I even noticed. Although maybe that is the whole solution. Make your surroundings natural to you, and adapt. Do not think about the troubles in life, just focus on your goals. That is my best guess my love."

"How could you not... *Sigh. Never mind." Houli says and just tries to ponder on what her mate has just told her from his experience so far. 

Shen Hu however is having fun now that he realized how easy it feels, he jumps around and tries to make his movements as free as possible, as if there were no holes in the floor. While doing such he wonders to himself. 'If I can already do this, I wonder when I will be able to walk on the air, defying gravity and what not, or even better yet being able to fold space and time?'

Meanwhile, the young master in question, is off in the immortal caves working on figuring out how to guide this technique better so as to not send himself flying though time again, and avoid going to the completely wrong location. Having made his way through the white tunnel, he sees before him a different light than that emitted by the walls, roof, and floor. 

Seeing this, raises his expectations a little and so too does his speed rise with it. Arriving into the room, it is dark? 'What is going on? How could it emit light yet still be dark?!' Yueliang wonders to himself as he halts his speed, not wanting to run into or trip over anything in the room. For all he knows, there could be a near bottomless pit for a floor if he proceeds just one more step.

'I wonder what sort of training or what not I will have to go through and experience this time as there is clearly a lesson at the end of each of these... Anyways, close the eyes, and take a breath, then proceed from there is one of the things I have learned so far.' And with that thought, he does as such, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to adjust to the room around him.

It is not without worry or seconds thoughts that he does this, but knowing they will be of no use to him, he takes a step forward casting aside his doubts and worries. Feeling stone beneath his foot after that step, he opens his eyes calmly and then looks around the place. 'I cannot see much except outlines, but at least it is an improvement. Plus my vision should return with time just like in the previous halls and rooms.'

One step at a time, he makes his way in a circle to both ease his mind as well as get a lay of some of the land in the room. In the center, seeing a small rectangular cube like shape laying on the protrusion from the ground that appears to be a table made of stone with its bottom carved out yet is part of the floor. Looking around, there is even a cylindrical pillow and blanket in one of the corners of the room on a raised portion of the floor that is flat. 

However despite the other objects in the room, Yueliang returns his gaze to the rectangular object laying on the table, and reaching out his hand, he picks it up. Playing with it in his hands it just feels like a hollowed out, yet empty box from the weight, but. *Rumble *Shake. A few seconds after playing with the box, the whole room shook as if the place were about to collapse.. He quickly puts the box like item back thinking maybe if he does the cave may return to normal.