Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The summer rain was a downpour after all, not to mention last night's rain was brought by two demon kings. When Qin Ran woke up in the morning, the rain had already stopped.

The rainwater cleansed the air and the world was refreshed. Over in the forest, little birds were hopping on the branches, while in front of the house, a young girl was practicing her swordplay on the lawn.

She was indeed a young girl, with a soft and slender body that was budding into womanhood. Her light green clothes fluttered in the wind as she moved gracefully, but her sword stances were anything but delicate - each move was powerful and forceful, with the swooshing sound of her sword cutting through the air ringing out from time to time.

Qin Ran sat under the eaves reading a book on the Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger. Next to his chair was curled up a calico cat...or rather, a cub of the Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger.

The swooshing sounds of the sword kept coming. He looked over at Li Shiyin's agile and nimble figure, and her fierce and swift sword techniques, and couldn't help but admire the power contained within that slender female body.

This silly apprentice was born to practice swordsmanship. She was only cultivating the most basic skills and practicing the most basic sword forms, yet each move already contained extraordinary might. Qin Ran thought to himself that even if Tian Wenjin didn't play dirty by flying into the air, it would be hard to say who would win in a fair fight against Li Shiyin on the ground.

After watching his apprentice practice sword for a while, Qin Ran went back to reading his book, studying how to raise this Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger cub.

Legend says the first Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger was born in the darkness, bathed in darkness, and innately grasped the laws of darkness, becoming the king of the dark. It fed on darkness and drew power from darkness.

It was said that with each swallow of darkness, another black stripe would appear on its body, and its abilities would rise another level, until its whole body was covered in black stripes and it could then fly up and devour the sun.

Looking at the book and then at Chasing the Wind curled up next to him, covered in black stripes even circling around his tail, Qin Ran suddenly felt that the records in this book were probably not very reliable.

"What legend, what it was said...could I be reading some cultivator world marketing account?" He closed the book to look at the cover, Divine Beast Encyclopedia, "Maybe the author has never seen a Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger."

Having thought this, he tossed the book aside, landing it on Chasing the Wind's face.

Chasing the Wind, who had been sleeping soundly, was suddenly hit by the book and jerked awake, his bright blue eyes seeing the pages of the book fluttering open like they were treasure. He pounced towards it.

But he didn't catch the book. His head collided with the book's spine, knocking it off into the grass outside. He himself crashed down where he was.

Seeing the king of darkness looking so silly, Qin Ran laughed.

Chasing the Wind got up again, cocking his head at Qin Ran, not understanding what this two-legged beast was laughing at. He didn't dwell on it, pouncing forward again onto the book in the grass.

Before long, the book was shredded to pieces.

Qin Ran watched Chasing the Wind tear up the book, silently apologizing to it.

"Master!" Li Shiyin's voice suddenly called out.

He looked over to see Li Shiyin was no longer practicing her sword. At some point she had gone to the riverbank and was now squatting by the Awaken Spirit Grass, waving to call him over.

Therefore, as long as one could sense energy and connect with heaven and earth, one could start building their foundation.

Li Shiyin had gained the ability to sense energy from the first day, so why was she only building her foundation now?

This was Qin Ran's deliberate doing...

Because even at the foundation building stage, there were differences in strength. Even energy vortexes had good and bad distinctions.

He intentionally had Li Shiyin use the most basic techniques to refine her inner energy, while also strengthening her physical body.

With her exceptionally pure energy and extremely strong physique, once she condensed an energy vortex, it could not possibly be an ordinary one.

As it was now, before she had even started condensing her vortex, there were already heavenly signs and wonders.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth in this region was gathering and forming mist around her, hazy and indistinct, real yet illusory. This was a sight like flowers in the mirror and moon reflected on the water.

"Huh?" Li Shiyin didn't know English.

"Build your foundation! Quick, sit down cross-legged!" Qin Ran urged, "Circulate the Basic Skills, focus your mind on Baihui Point, use your inner energy to guide in the spiritual energy."

"Build my foundation..." Li Shiyin understood now. She sat down cross-legged as instructed, closed her eyes, and started circulating her inner energy. But she soon opened her eyes again and looked at Qin Ran, asking, "Master, where is Baihui Point?"

Qin Ran nearly suffocated from exasperation. He raised his hand to smack her, but ended up smacking himself instead. Then he raised his hand again, pressing down on the Baihui Point on the crown of Li Shiyin's head, saying, "Here!"

"Don't move your hand, Master." Li Shiyin said, then closed her eyes again.

She circulated her inner energy, her mind coming to the spot where Qin Ran's hand was pressed. She visualized massive waves and fierce gales there, with the spiritual energy too abundant and turbulent.

With her solid fundamentals, the amount of heaven and earth's spiritual energy she could draw in was too much.

Li Shiyin took a deep breath to calm herself, recalling Qin Ran's instructions on building one's foundation...

She circulated her inner energy to Baihui Point, then carefully drew in a wisp of spiritual energy from the turbulent winds and waves, swiftly bringing it along her inner circulation path down to the Qihai Point...into the lower elixir field.

In her mind's eye, the lower elixir field had originally been pitch black, but now lit up with the entry of this strand of spiritual energy. As she circulated her inner energy, this strand of spiritual energy spun within the elixir field, elongating into a vortex...

With this, her first energy vortex could be said to have succeeded.

Li Shiyin remained composed. Her mind returned to Baihui Point, then fully released her control, drawing in heaven and earth's spiritual energy into her body!