Rainy Days, Learning Days

Li Shiyin was grounded by Qin Ran, and Chasing the Wind, as an accessory, did not dare to run around anymore either.

So the two mischievous troublemakers finally settled down obediently in Danfeng without running around randomly. From the time Shiyin learned to ride a sword to the time Chasing the Wind was able to run around everywhere, the two of them had spent about as much time outside as they had at home.

And for such wild children, being shut in at home was not much different from being in jail.

Every day, Chasing the Wind would lazily sprawl on the cat tree to sleep, except for eating, he had no energy at all, and did not even want to move his tail one bit.

He was now six or seven months old, equivalent to a twelve or thirteen-year-old human teenager, and was still growing rapidly. His body was bigger day by day, changing by the day, and was already larger than an average adult tiger.

As soon as he lay down, he was a big lump of rice cake. Fortunately, the cat tree custom made by Li Shiyin was sturdy enough, otherwise it definitely could not withstand his petite body.

Day after day, Li Shiyin also had nothing to do. Occasionally, she would practice her swordplay...but more often, she would occupy Qin Ran’s lounge chair to sleep, also completely devoid of energy.

Two pieces of salted fish, two lazy monsters.

As autumn set in, the weather turned cool, and rain increased.

On this day, Qin Ran was reading elixir scripts in the pavilion in the middle of the lake, researching the elixir of longevity, when suddenly it started raining outside.

He was fine in the pavilion. The sound of rain hitting the pavilion tiles and splashing into the lake made him more focused on reading. But the two lazy ones outside were about to get drenched by the rain.

Paralyzed by the lakeside asleep, Li Shiyin woke up when the raindrops hit her face. She hurried along the dam into the pavilion before the rain intensified.

The catworm on the cat tree was showered for a good while before hazily realizing it was raining. By the time he woke up, his whole body was already soaked. He frantically charged into the pavilion, bringing with him a gust of wind and rain.

The fierce wind blew Qin Ran’s books into a mess. He raised his hand to block the water flicked from Chasing the Wind’s fur, still maintaining his graceful demeanor.

“Stinky tiger!” But Li Shiyin was sprayed all over by the water brought in by Chasing the Wind.

“Uh... uh huh!” Chasing the Wind grinned foolishly, also foolishly gathering the books scattered on the ground with both front paws.

The two lazy monsters actually had an exceptionally good relationship. Li Shiyin held no grudges either. She squatted down to help Chasing the Wind pick up the books.

Qin Ran sat on the railing, calmly taking a sip of awakening tea, waiting for Li Shiyin and Chasing the Wind to pick up all the books and put them on the stone table before speaking: “Are you two planning to just keep sleeping until I let you out?”

The one with thick tiger skin looked around foolishly, pretending not to understand.

“Cough...” But Li Shiyin was still a little embarrassed. She stole a glance at Qin Ran and replied, “It’s just that the weather has been gloomy recently, making me prone to drowsiness.”

Qin Ran was too lazy to bother with her lame excuse of autumn drowsiness. He said directly, “Choose to study either arrays or elixirs.”

Li Shiyin was clever enough to first ask Qin Ran, “Which one is better to learn?”

“Both have their own advantages,” Qin Ran explained in detail.

“The applicability of arrays is extensive. When your sword attainment reaches a certain level in the future, you will definitely need to get involved with arrays, not to mention special crossover techniques like sword arrays. By learning arrays, in addition to gaining some basic array knowledge, you can also incorporate it into your swordsmanship.”

“Elixirs can complement swordsmanship. Swordsmanship is the way of offense while elixirs are the way of defense. One offense and one defense, subtly conforming to yin and yang, is the Great Dao. By learning about elixirs, in addition to gaining some pharmacology knowledge, you can also understand human anatomy, acupoints, meridians, and qì cultivation, which will be of great help in combat.”

When Li Shiyin heard this, she realized both would be very helpful to her, so she asked, “Can I learn both?”

Qin Ran smiled happily and nodded, looking at Li Shiyin, “You can learn both.”

“Really?!” Li Shiyin's eyes lit up.

“As long as you can......” Qin Ran said as he pulled out two thick textbooks from his cosmic bag, holding one in each hand for Li Shiyin to see, “One is ‘Fundamentals of Arrays’, and one is ‘Fundamentals of Pharmacology’. Do you want to learn both?”

That book "Fundamentals of Arrays" was what Lingering Clouds spent over a month reading day and night before barely finishing.

As for “Fundamentals of Pharmacology”, it was the book Li Shiyin had seen on the second day after becoming a disciple. She had left a puddle of drool on it... Afterwards she switched to practicing swordsmanship instead.

Looking closely, Li Shiyin could still see the marks left by her dried saliva on “Fundamentals of Pharmacology”.

Just seeing these two books, Li Shiyin already felt overwhelmed and filled with dread, let alone having to study both...

She realized the gravity of the situation and hurriedly acted pitiful. No, she really was pitiful, weakly asking, “Master~ Can I not study them?”

Qin Ran’s face darkened. “Pick one!”

Li Shiyin shuddered in fright. Looking at the books again, she had already experienced the might of “Fundamentals of Pharmacology”. Those densely packed words still made her dizzy just thinking about them now.

So she reached out towards “Fundamentals of Arrays”, but halfway there she suddenly remembered the master mentioning to Lingering Clouds earlier that learning arrays required learning mathematics as well. She quickly stopped, thinking a familiar enemy was clearly preferable over a completely unfamiliar one.

Her hand turned and she picked up “Fundamentals of Pharmacology” instead.

“Just read here for now...” Qin Ran said, “Rainy days are very suitable for reading.”

Li Shiyin plopped down on the floor, resting the book on her knees, utterly despairing as she turned to the first page.

After dealing with Li Shiyin, Qin Ran looked towards Chasing the Wind.

Chasing the Wind had been happily watching the show on the sidelines...but suddenly he realized Qin Ran’s attention was now on him.

He immediately sobered up, sitting up straight, no longer daring to sway his happy tail. Both ears flattened back, becoming airplane ears.

“Since Shiyin is studying pharmacology, you can study arrays.” Qin Ran handed Fundamentals of Arrays to Chasing the Wind, smiling amiably.

“Daddy...” Chasing the Wind opened his mouth, extremely afraid, trying to save himself as he stuttered, “I... I can't read.”

“Oh!” Qin Ran realized what was going on and withdrew Fundamentals of Arrays.

With the crisis resolved, Chasing the Wind instantly relaxed, secretly applauding his own wit. He looked at Li Shiyin, his cat face full of gloating laughter.

But as he laughed, he suddenly saw Qin Ran take out pen and paper from his cosmic bag again. The clever big cat realized something. His smile gradually froze on his face.

At this moment, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, right into hell.

“Then let’s start from the basics!” Qin Ran was not a demon after all. He gently smiled, “It's this era already. Being illiterate is unacceptable.”

“Dad... Dad...” Chasing the Wind was even stuttering now. “Are you... joking...?!”

He was just a cute little kitty! What did learning have anything to do with him?!

“It’s a bit late already, I didn’t expect you to grow up so fast...” Qin Ran said solemnly, “It works out just right. You can learn elementary Chinese and elementary math together. Once you have a good grasp of mathematical knowledge, it will be much easier to learn arrays in the future.”

“Awrrr...” the mysterious spirit tiger let out a desolate howl.

“Hahaha...” the sword immortal laughed clear as silver bells, gloating in his misery.