Tiger in the Mountain

The next morning, Chasing the Wind finished his beast pellet early and ran out the door.

At that time, Qin Ran was sitting under the spiritual pagoda tree reading a book. The wind brought up by Chasing the Wind as he ran lifted the pages of his book. He pressed the pages down and looked towards the retreating back of Chasing the Wind... That sturdy figure finally disappeared among the dead trees.

"Where is he going?" he asked Li Shiyin.

Li Shiyin was practicing her sword in front of the log cabin.

"I don't know either." She shook her head and said, "These days, Chasing the Wind runs out every day, leaving after breakfast and only coming back at night."

Qin Ran thought about it for a while. Currently, there probably weren't many creatures on Dan Peak that could pose a threat to Chasing the Wind, so he didn't ask any further and just let Chasing the Wind be.

Chasing the Wind was now about four months old, a young Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger. But he was already the size of a mature adult tiger, about 100 jin when estimated.

Apart from his size, Chasing the Wind also had cultivation level. Beast cultivation ways differ from human cultivation. Beasts focus on the body more than magic power. Regarding magic power, they only have a simple beast core.

Because he followed Qin Ran, not only did Chasing the Wind cultivate his body, he also strengthened his magic power... Roughly converted, Chasing Wind should now be close to the late Foundation Establishment realm. Among the three silly tigers of Dan Peak, he had the strongest power.

Apart from cultivation level and physique, Chasing Wind also had many innate divine abilities.

What were Chasing Wind’s talents? Here is a simple summary:

First, control of darkness. This was the Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger’s innate divine ability.

This talent awakened that night when Qin Ran and Li Shiyin returned from forging swords. The little guy was afraid of being punished by Qin Ran for wrecking the house, so under Li Shiyin’s urging, he ran away from home. He ran into the forest and got beaten up badly by beasts. Finally, when his life was endangered, his bloodline awakened.

Second, wind striding. This was an innate talent of the tiger tribe. Some tigers will awaken it, some won’t.

When Qin Ran was crossing the tribulation, in order to save Qin Ran from under the heaven-destroying winds, Chasing the Wind awakened his wind striding talent and gained control over the heaven destroying winds.

Third, soul control. Also an innate talent of the tiger tribe. Some tigers will awaken it, some won’t.

This was also awakened in order to save Qin Ran’s life under the heavenly tribulation. Chasing the Wind awakened the talent of soul control. Moreover, it wasn't just creating wraiths, but having some control over souls.

Fourth, tail avatar. Chasing Wind's special talent. The little guy secretly awakened it without Qin Ran knowing.

This talent allows Chasing Wind to turn his tail into an avatar that can merge into shadows.

In summary, in terms of cultivation level, physique, talents, Chasing Wind was not just a cute tiger who only acts cute. Instead, he was a ferocious tiger that made beasts terrified.

(Qin Ran should be worried not about Chasing Wind, but about the small animals on Dan Peak.)

No longer caring about Chasing Wind, Qin Ran continued researching Dan Peak’s guardian grand formation.

He had been researching this formation for several months now, and still hadn’t figured it out. It really was quite difficult.

Originally, he had worked out a set, but that formation required three formation bases - the Clear Spring Stone, Spirit Calming Wood, and Numinous Fiend Gold. Then he didn’t manage to buy the Numinous Fiend Gold, so he couldn’t set it up.

Now he couldn’t go to Linxian City anymore, so there was no way to obtain Numinous Fiend Gold. Therefore, he could only work out another formation... one that didn’t need Numinous Fiend Gold.

Or change the bases and use treasures he already had as the bases.

Treasures he already had...

Thinking of this, Qin Ran suddenly summoned out his Nine Provinces Cauldron, shrunk it to palm size, then poured out a Dao Fruit from inside.

This Dao Fruit was one of the five Dao Fruits he had obtained from Tushan Youyou. He had thrown out the other four to lure enemies. This one he had secretly kept.

“Can it be used as a formation base?” he wondered.

He soon shook his head. The Dao Fruit could be used as a base, but there was only one problem - he didn’t know how...

This Dao Fruit looked just like an ordinary glass bead. One would probably need to use special means to stimulate it before being able to use it.

Putting away the Dao Fruit, Qin Ran took out the willow branch he had cut off last time.

He held the willow branch in his hand, staring at it as he pondered for a good while. Then a strange idea popped into his mind...

Ordinary willow trees could propagate through planting willow branches. Could the Devouring Demon Willow?

“Master, this is from...” Li Shiyin, who was beside him, stopped practicing her sword. Seeing the willow branch in Qin Ran’s hand, she hurriedly asked, “The Devouring Demon Willow, right?”

“Mn.” Qin ran nodded.

“Didn’t the Devouring Demon Willow die already?”

“This is a branch from the Devouring Demon Willow,” Qin Ran said. “I want to try planting it.”

“Where are you planting it?”

“By the lake.”

Having made up his mind, it was still worth giving it a try.

He got up and brought out some formation materials from the study pavilion, sorting and preparing materials for restrictions and formations at the bottom of the lake.

The bottom of the lake had to be reinforced and needed formations set up. Then he would direct the lake water down...

At noon, Chasing the Wind came back, covered in injuries.

At that time, Qin Ran was taking measurements at the bottom of the lake, thinking about how to set up the formations. Then he heard Chasing the Wind shouting by the lakeside, “Roar... Daddy, food!”

He looked up to see Chasing the Wind’s pure white cat head sporting several bruises and bleeding claw marks.

“What happened to you?” He pointed at Chasing the Wind’s head and asked.

Chasing the Wind shook his head without answering.

Qin Ran put down his measuring tools and jumped out from the bottom of the lake. He examined the blood marks on the cat head, probably clawed out by some bird beast. He rubbed out some medicinal powder and applied it on the wounds.

“Have you been going out every day to find others to fight with?”

“My... territory!” Chasing the Wind said. The medicine stung him and he kept shaking his head, even rubbing against Qin Ran’s legs.

Qin Ran directly slapped him and laughed scoldingly, “What’s your territory? It’s my territory!”

Unexpectedly, this big cat had quite strong territorial awareness. Wanting to seize power at such a young age. Converted to human age, Chasing Wind was only about ten years old now. In other words, a ten year old emperor wanted to seize power...

This cute tiger was actually so ambitious.

Qin Ran kept examining his injuries while nagging, “Running out after eating, only coming back when hungry. What, is our house a restaurant? Oh, you’ll still come back to sleep. Looks like our house is a hotel...”

“Now you’re never home all day. When you grow bigger, will you just not come back?!”

As he spoke, he suddenly felt angry and used more force when applying medicine, also asking, “How about it? Did you win the fight?”

Chasing the Wind bared his fangs in pain but behaved very obediently without struggling. Hearing Qin Ran ask this, the smugness immediately showed on his cat face. He lifted his head arrogantly and roared, “Won!”

Seeing him so smug, Qin Ran was displeased and slapped him again, scolding, “So smug just because you won? Look at yourself covered in injuries. Medicinal pills don’t cost money?”

The cat head drooped down aggrievedly.

“When you’re hungry, what do you want to eat? Beast pellets or spirit beast meat?” After Qin Ran finished applying medicine on him, he asked.

The big cat eyes lit up brightly and he roared loudly, “Roast meat!”

“Who has the time to roast meat for you every day?” Qin Ran kicked him and brought him towards the log cabin.

Qin Ran took out two chunks of high quality spirit beast meat rich in spiritual energy from the fridge and threw them into Chasing the Wind’s food bowl.

After two bites, Chasing the Wind was very unhappy with it. He let out dissatisfied “aoo aoo” cries at Qin Ran and acted coquettishly, “Daddy...”

Qin Ran didn’t pamper him. Squinting, he asked, “Your Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger lineage, don’t you all know how to start fires and cook for yourselves, only eating cooked food?”

The cat head drooped down aggrievedly. He lay in front of his food bowl, using his tongue to slowly lick and eat the meat, relying on the meat spikes on his tongue.