Condensation Cyclone

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.

"Master, it's sprouting!" Li Shiyin said happily.

"Sprouting?" Qin Ran's heart stirred and he hurriedly got up and went over.

Next to the exuberantly lush Awaken Spirit Grass was a plot of freshly turned soil, and poking out from the soil were some green shoots capped with little black hats, full of life.

These were the Crane Crown Immortal Grass he had planted as an experiment some days ago. Qin Ran couldn't afford spirit soil so he just tried planting some normal ones...he didn't expect they would actually sprout, and there were four seedlings!

Qin Ran was quite pleasantly surprised. He elbowed Li Shiyin aside and squatted down to examine them closely.

Compared to normal Crane Crown Immortal Grass, these new sprouts seemed a bit more slender. Also, normal Crane Crown Immortal Grass, even when just sprouting, should have a shimmering aura of spiritual energy, like a cultivator circulating spiritual energy. But these sprouts didn't have any aura.

"They've sprouted, but they're malnourished," he murmured softly.

Then he fell into thought, "I planted them several days ago, why did they only sprout today? Was it because of the rain? Or related to the Thunder Unicorn Ox last night?"

"Mas...Master..." Just as he was pondering this, Li Shiyin's voice sounded out again.

"What's wrong?"

He turned to look and saw something was off with Li Shiyin. She seemed drunk, unsteady on her feet, with a flushed red face, and wisps of steam rising from her head. On closer look, the steam coming off her head wasn't steam, but faint strands of spiritual energy.

At this moment, she also emanated a kind of special allure, pulling the surrounding spiritual energy towards her. Before long, her entire person was shrouded in mist.

"Master...what's happening to me?" Li Shiyin asked hazily, a little panicked since she didn't know what was going on.

But Qin Ran understood instantly. He laughed, "It's time to build your foundation."

The gathering of heaven and earth's spiritual energy meant that the inner and outer worlds within Li Shiyin's body were connecting. To put it mystically, this was the unity of heaven and man; to explain it simply, it meant she could now start building her foundation.

On the 11th day after this silly apprentice started learning from him, she could finally build her foundation.

Building one's foundation was the beginning of cultivating the immortal path. The foundation building stage was the first realm in cultivation.

Building a foundation required condensing a vortex of energy, and to condense an energy vortex required drawing in heaven and earth's spiritual energy into the body, which in turn required spirit roots - an innate gift to activate to be able to draw in the spiritual energy.

To have spirit roots activated required having inner energy. To have inner energy required sensing energy.

So sensing energy was the beginning.

First, having the ability to sense energy, then using one's inner energy to connect with outer energy, then using spirit roots to draw heaven and earth's spiritual energy into the body, condensing an energy vortex in the lower elixir field...

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!