Qin Ran woke up and found that the sun had retreated to the windowsill. It was probably already past noon. He was about to get up when he suddenly noticed something pressing on his chest. Looking down, it was a furball.
"So this is why I'm suffering the same fate as the Great Sage! It was you, you little rascal!"
He had just dreamed that he was pinned under the Five Finger Mountain by Miaozu the Cat Ancestor.
He poked the cat's head, but seeing that it had withstood Li Shiyin's food attacks on his behalf, Qin Ran didn't hold it against the cat. He gently picked it up and put it on the bed before getting up himself.
However, Chasing the Wind had also woken up. Good cats never sleep in. It got up, shook itself, stretched lazily, then jumped off the bed after its master.
Seeing the little guy so energetic and lively, Qin Ran couldn't help but sigh. As expected of a seventh-level demon beast, its recovery abilities were too strong.
Opening the door, Qin Ran looked out at the open terrain in front. He instantly felt refreshed and carefree - the forest, the grasslands, the gentle breeze.
In the middle of the grasslands was the mud pit, now very visible. It seemed his foolish apprentice hadn't been lazy today - the mud pit was clearly bigger.
Looking closely, he could see mud flying out continuously from the pit. As he watched, Qin Ran's eyebrows gradually furrowed. What kind of pit was Li Shiyin digging?
"Li Shiyin!" he called out loudly.
After a while, a mud figure jumped out of the pit and shouted back: "Master... you're awake?!"
"What are you doing with that digging?" Qin Ran asked.
"What?" Li Shiyin pretended not to hear. "Master, what did you say? I can't hear you."
Qin Ran's expression darkened. Li Shiyin's body had been enhanced many times, far surpassing ordinary people. She was probably better than most Foundation Establishment cultivators. With that physical ability, how could she not hear him clearly from this distance?
He flipped over the railing and used his divine walking technique to appear before Li Shiyin in two quick steps.
"What are you doing with that digging?" he asked again.
"I was just..." Li Shiyin was startled, quickly lowering her head like a child caught misbehaving. She mimed a digging motion. "Digging like this."
Qin Ran looked down into the mud pit. Sure enough, there were several broken iron shovels and spades lying about haphazardly.
His foolish apprentice hadn't been working at all. She was just fooling around like an over-energetic golden retriever, playing recklessly without restraint.
"How did the shovels break?"
Li Shiyin didn't answer.
"Didn't I tell you to control your strength?" Qin Ran's brows furrowed. "Was I telling you to play around like this?"
Still no answer from Li Shiyin.
Qin Ran was furious. He glared at her. "The tools are all broken. Let's see how you dig now!"
"Then I just won't dig anymore," Li Shiyin mumbled softly.
"Keep digging with your hands!" Qin Ran scolded.
He turned and walked back to the house, but after a couple steps he turned back and asked: "What did you eat for lunch?"
"Haven't eaten lunch yet," Li Shiyin replied.
Qin Ran took a deep breath and shook his head. "I really owe you one!"
He still cooked a meal. His foolish apprentice ate three big bowls as if nothing had happened, foolishly laughing: "Didn't eat last night, was starving to death."
"Who was the one who cooked last night?" Qin Ran couldn't even look at her.
After the meal, Li Shiyin continued digging the pit. To prevent further antics, Qin Ran supervised from the side.
As he watched over her, he used a small knife to slice bamboo sticks in preparation for weaving cages.
There were still two surviving stalks of Crane Crown Immortal Grass. Originally there had been four sprouts, but he had been too busy with Li Shiyin's Foundation Establishment these past few days to pay much attention. Two stalks had died from the sun.
He was going to weave a bamboo cage to provide some shade and block the sunlight a little.
Having prepared the bamboo strips, he started weaving the cage. The long strips folded and turned, catching Chasing the Wind's attention. It came over to bat and pounce at the strips, utterly delighted.
Qin Ran didn't notice at first, until the bamboo strips shortened and Chasing the Wind's play interfered with his weaving. Only then did he realize the little demon beast was treating the bamboo like a cat toy.
But Chasing the Wind was inherently a feline demon beast, so it was normal for it to like moving objects. At first Qin Ran didn't think much of it, and even intentionally teased Chasing the Wind with the bamboo.
But as they played, he gradually felt something was off.
After some time, he finally realized - Chasing the Wind was not a cat! It was a seventh-level demon beast! The Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger!
"Hey! Wake up, you're the Demon King!" Qin Ran pressed down on Chasing Wind's head to stop its playful behavior.
"Mm...roar!"
Thinking Qin Ran was playing with it, Chasing Wind bared its fangs and scratched and bit at his hand.
Seeing the silly Chasing Wind acting like this, Qin Ran fell into contemplation... No, he couldn't let such a powerful demon beast degenerate into just a cute pet that only knew how to act cutesy.
What was the difference between humans and animals? He started thinking about this question.
There were many answers - wisdom, tools, benevolence and righteousness. But Qin Ran recalled a viewpoint raised by psychologists on Earth: language was the biggest difference between humans and animals.
It was because humans had language that they developed thought and civilization. Humans first had language, then the language centers of the brain. When a baby was born from the womb, its brain was not fully developed yet. It would grow as the child aged, until 11 or 12 years old. And the language centers would develop during this time together with the child's first language, its mother tongue.
Language was the fundamental difference between humans and other creatures.
Especially in this world, demon beasts here could become very powerful, moving mountains and diverting rivers. But demon beasts had no civilization... Or rather, demon beasts had no civilization of their own. Demon beast civilization was established through human language.
Demon beasts could become very strong, but no matter how powerful, a demon beast's best place was still to become the mighty mount of a human master.
Qin Ran held up the cute little Chasing Wind as he had a bold idea.
After all, demon beasts were smarter than ordinary beasts... What would happen if he taught this little guy to speak?
Usually demon beasts needed cultivation, taking human form, immersing themselves in the human world to learn language before they could speak.
What would happen if he directly taught a beast-form demon beast to speak?
Qin Ran thought it would be very interesting.
He quickly placed Chasing Wind on the chair he was sitting on, signaling it not to move.
But Chasing Wind, like an ordinary cat, still thought they were playing. It kept chasing and pouncing on his hand.
After several failed attempts, Qin Ran realized this wouldn't work. He first had to make Chasing Wind understand what he wanted before teaching it.
But the cat and dog training methods on Earth were fundamentally the same as Pavlov's dog training, utilizing conditioned reflexes. Cats and dogs didn't actually understand human meaning. They only knew doing so would earn rewards and make their owner happy, nothing more.
Qin Ran didn't want to train Chasing Wind this way. A seventh-level demon beast was smart enough that he should teach it to speak the human way.
As he pondered this, he suddenly realized he was in a cultivation world. There were some unorthodox methods available.
Such as, divine sense!
Master Danding had an amazing technique that gave even Foundation Establishment stage cultivators like him divine sense.
Thinking of this, he quickly extended his divine sense and entered Chasing Wind's Sea of Wisdom, telling it through divine sense what he wanted it to do.
"Ah... Ah..."
Li Shiyin was still arduously digging away in the mud pit when she suddenly heard her master's voice crying "Ah ah ah!" from above.
"What's Master doing?"
She was very confused. Exerting strength, she jumped onto the pit edge and climbed out.
Then...
She saw Chasing Wind sitting properly on a chair with Master half-kneeling before it, mouth wide open, making sounds. Then he would occasionally close his mouth and vocalize:
"Ah... Ah... Ma... Ma..."
This scene was far too bizarre. Li Shiyin stood there gaping for a good while.
"Mas... Master... what... what are you doing?" This had shocked the foolish apprentice for fifteen years!
"Huh?" Qin Ran was startled by the sudden voice. Looking back, he saw Li Shiyin and replied: "I'm teaching Chasing Wind to speak."
But seeing her expression, he followed her gaze back to himself and gradually realized something was off, his own expression becoming colorful.
"Wait, listen to my explanation!"
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
