Master, I found a treasure.

Chasing the Wind's cat tree was very difficult to make.

On one hand, Li Shiyin considered that Chasing the Wind would grow to be a very large cat, so the cat tree should also be very big for Chasing the Wind to use when he grows up;

On the other hand, she wanted it to look nice - the cat tree could not be casually made in Master Carver's style, it had to be made into a beautiful cat tree.

Based on these two considerations, the new cat tree Li Shiyin had Master Carver make was quite large. It was almost half the size of the current lake bottom, and in terms of height...let's put it this way, in Li Shiyin's design, the base of this cat tree would be at the bottom of the lake.

If she made it like this, if it were in the Mortal Kingdom, the ministers worried about the state would at least say "What an astonishing sight, Your Majesty".

So this morning, Qin Ran was drawing ritual diagrams in the study when suddenly Li Shiyin's cries came from outside: "Master! Master! It's over... Master! Master, something happened! Master!"

He was perfectly fine here, what could have happened?

Qin Ran got up with a black expression on his face. Looking out the window, he saw Li Shiyin fly up from the lake pit, a panicked look on her face as she flew over, while white steam kept gushing up from the bottom of the lake behind her.

"What happened here?" He pushed his hand on the table and flew out to meet Li Shiyin.

"Spirit...spirit stone!" Li Shiyin panted, stuttering, "Dug into spirit stone!"

"Dug into spirit stone?"

Qin Ran frowned, flying to the edge of the lake pit. Peering down, he could only see that the entire bottom of the lake was a vast expanse of white, unclear to see anything. He then activated his eye skill Illusory Realm to take a closer look downwards, and saw that the white steam was all coming out of a small hole at the bottom of the lake.

Moreover, that white steam was not ordinary white steam, it was spiritual energy that had been vaporized.

Qin Ran raised his hand and summoned a huge bubble, wrapping it around all the white steam. Expanding and contracting, he sucked all the white steam into the bubble. Then with a squeeze, he shrunk the bubble and grasped all the spiritual energy in his hand.

He looked down at the bottom of the lake again to see the rocks at a certain spot keep spewing white steam out of that small hole. It was very obvious that this was the place Li Shiyin had dug open.

Qin Ran hurriedly flew over and covered the gap with his hand, bringing out a thin transparent membrane to seal the gap. He then activated mystic arts to lay down some arrays and restrictions to temporarily seal it.

"Master?" Li Shiyin was behind him. Beside her was the big cat Chasing the Wind with Long Qiqi riding on his back. Six pairs of eyes looked at the hole as Li Shiyin asked Qin Ran, "Sealed?"

"Mm..." Qin Ran nodded. "Temporarily sealed. But there is a spiritual vein below, the spiritual energy is too rich, this kind of seal can't last long and will soon be broken through by the spiritual energy."

"What should we do then?" Li Shiyin panicked a little. "I dug into a spiritual vein. Will it affect the sect's fortune? Will I get punished by the Sect Leader? Will you get scolded by the Sect Leader? I won't get expelled from the Dao Sword Sect right?!"

The more she thought about it, the more possible it seemed. She looked like she was about to cry. Chasing the Wind then rubbed his big cat head against her to comfort her, "Meow."

"What are you thinking about?" Qin Ran shook his head with a sigh. "Too naive! No one will punish you..."

"Huh?" Li Shiyin was surprised.

Why did the Dao Sword Sect establish itself here?

It was precisely because there was a spiritual vein here, a very large spiritual vein.

How large was this spiritual vein?

Large enough that anywhere in the Dao Sword Sect, if you dig deep enough, it's possible to dig out spirit stones.

So digging out spirit stones in the Dao Sword Sect was a very normal thing. The only abnormal part was being able to dig so deep in the Dao Sword Sect. After all, inside the sect those high-flying patrol teams going around every day were not just for show.

But, Li Shiyin digging spirit stones anywhere in the sect grounds could cause big problems, the only exception was at Dan Peak.

Why?

Because Dan Peak's chief was Qin Ran!

Her master.

He, Qin Ran, was Dan Peak's chief. If he didn't care about Dan Peak's foundations, why would anyone else care?

So with Li Shiyin digging into spirit stones at Dan Peak, there would be no other issues, it was just that Qin Ran had to think about how to plug up this hole.

If he didn't seal it up, spiritual energy would be leaking out ceaselessly, what a waste!

Qin Ran paced around the hole, arms crossed, lightly tapping his fists on his forehead, pondering how he should deal with this hole.

"No rest after one matter is done, then comes the next..." Qin Ran suddenly realized that ever since Li Shiyin became his disciple, his whole life had been busy with one thing or another without any respite. And now, just after tribulation transcendence, the mountain-protecting great formation had yet to be figured out, then she gave him another thing to work on.

He couldn't help but give Li Shiyin's direction a deep look.

"Mas...master?" Li Shiyin was a little scared and shifted closer to the side, hugging Chasing the Wind's cat head.

Qin Ran rolled his eyes at her and continued pondering...

"Spirit energy hole, spirit stone vein, mountain protecting great formation array?"

Qin Ran suddenly stopped and had an idea. He reached behind and took out a stack of papers...these papers were either densely filled with basic formations, terrain maps of Dan Peak, or academic articles analyzing formations.

He flipped through them twice and took out a drawing showing the effects of a certain formation, where the position of the core was empty.

Qin Ran had been researching this mountain protecting formation array for a long time. Ever since he discovered that other people could enter Dan Peak as easily as walking into a public restroom, he started analyzing this formation. The research was mostly done but he still couldn't figure out what treasure to use for the core. And now, he had a different idea...

Use this spirit energy hole, Dan Peak's spiritual vein as the core!

The spirit energy hole was already dug out, wouldn't it be troublesome to seal it back up? Why not make use of it!

Using Dan Peak's spiritual vein as the core of the Dan Peak mountain protecting great formation array, that makes sense!

Moreover...

This spirit energy hole was at the bottom of the lake. According to his plan, perhaps it could have some other uses as well.

Thinking this, Qin Ran became rather excited. Reaching behind again he took out another paper and brush, squatting at the bottom of this lake as he started drafting and drawing.

After being busy for a good while, he finally made an initial plan. Standing up, he realized his silly disciple was still standing behind him, with an expression like a child who had made a huge mistake and was waiting to be scolded without knowing what to do.

It was rare to see her like this... Chasing the Wind and Long Qiqi had already scampered off to play.

"How's the progress on Chasing the Wind's cat scratcher?" Qin Ran asked instead.

"Still lacks some work." Li Shiyin replied.

"Leave the height as it is, no more digging downwards to avoid hitting the spiritual vein again." Qin Ran said. "Just polish it up next then carve it out."

"Okay!" Hearing this, Li Shiyin took out her sword and activated her sword qi.

"After the cat tree is carved out, don't touch the bottom of the lake anymore. The lake is about 10 meters deep already, it's enough." Qin Ran glanced around the surroundings of the lake bottom, "Then I'll come set up restrictions to reinforce the bottom of the lake. How much longer will you need?"

"I'll finish it today." Li Shiyin said. "But I made it too big to move. I still need master's help to move it."

Qin Ran looked at the scale of this cat tree and shook his head. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought it was a small mountain!

"Fine. Don't touch the restrictions around the hole. Call me when it's done." Saying thus, Qin Ran flew up out of the lake pit and with another leap, arrived at the study.

He still had to keep researching the mountain protecting great formation array.