You're No Ordinary Cat

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!"