Talking Cats

Qin Ran was woken up by the “hee hee ha ha” sounds of Li Shiyin’s voice. He crawled out of bed and went out to the hallway, and as expected, Li Shiyin was sword dancing in the mud pit again.

It was around five o’clock in the afternoon now. The sunlight was starting to soften, but the sun had not set yet. Today was sunny again after the rain, and the whole world was clean, fresh, gentle and beautiful.

It was as if last night’s rainy escape was just something from a dream.

The silly apprentice was making a ruckus over there, and he should have stopped her, but right now he didn’t want to stop her. He just felt it was very beautiful.

He went downstairs and poured himself a glass of boiled water, then slowly stepped to the edge of the mud pit, cup in hand.

When he arrived here, he realized there was not only Li Shiyin at the bottom of the pit, but Chasing the Wind was there too. This cat, originally black and white, was now waving its paws vigorously, clawing at the mud. It was also meowing, kicking up mud and dirt, turning itself into an all black cat.

Li Shiyin had been digging this pit for almost twenty days now. It had reached a considerable size. As she danced her sword within it, twisting and turning, she was no longer affected by the terrain.

The silly apprentice's talent for martial arts was no joke. Qin Ran watched for a while and realized the silly apprentice's sword already vaguely contained sword energy.

Once sword energy appeared, it signified formally entering into the path of the sword. As for Qin Ran himself, he looked like a blind man swinging around a lantern when holding a sword.

"It's just that her alertness is too low," Qin Ran shook his head. He had been standing here for quite a while already, yet the silly apprentice had not noticed him at all. If she went out adventuring like this, she'd likely be dead before even reaching Linxian City.

"Looks like I'll have to strengthen education in this area from now on..." he thought.

Just then, Li Shiyin shouted lightly: "Master, watch my sword!"

"Hmm?"

Qin Ran looked closely. Li Shiyin in the pit was already facing towards him. She placed the tips of her feet on the ground, borrowed a bit of force, and her whole body sprang up into the air as she thrusted a sword strike at him.

Good heavens, he had just been dissatisfied with the silly apprentice's alertness, and the next second he was about to be backstabbed by the silly apprentice. Fortunately his skin was thick enough.

Seeing this, Qin Ran moved his right hand fingers, guiding the boiled water in his left hand cup to fly out in a strip, swirling forward to wrap around the silly apprentice's sword. With a tug to the side, her strike deviated to the side.

"Go pour the water!"

Qin Ran threw the cup to Li Shiyin and went to sit in the chair at the edge of the pit.

"Aw!" Li Shiyin sighed regretfully, caught the cup, and trotted off to the cabin with a "du du du".

Chasing the Wind, who had been working hard at the bottom of the pit, also noticed Qin Ran at this time. With a "meow", it became excited. It leapt from the over three meter deep pit in one go, landed right on the edge, then pounced towards Qin Ran's embrace.

Qin Ran had just sat down and was caught unprepared. Chasing the Wind crashed into his arms, knocking over his recliner and forcing the air out of his chest.

Even after knocking him down, Chasing the Wind was still excited. The ten-plus kilo body stomped around on his chest, letting him experience the unbearable weight of love.

Covered in mud, Qin Ran gasped for air, beginning to worry. Chasing the Wind was not a cat but a tiger. If it never figured out its size as it grew up and kept pouncing on him like this, it could kill someone.

He reached out to hug Chasing the Wind, intending to teach it a lesson, but at that moment, he suddenly heard Chasing the Wind make a sound: "Hug... dad... dad... bow..."

"Hmm?" He froze in shock, looking at Chasing the Wind in disbelief. "You, what are you saying?"

Chasing the Wind opened its cute three-lobed mouth, revealing two adorable sharp fangs, and clearly shouted: "Dad...dad..."

"I...I...damn!" Qin Ran blurted out a curse, completely dumbfounded, unable to move for half the day.

Li Shiyin came running over with the water. Chasing the Wind tilted its head towards her and shouted: "Mom... mom... moo..."

"Hey hey hey! Stop! Don't make random sounds!" Qin Ran woke up with a jolt and sat up, hurriedly holding Chasing the Wind down to stop it from shouting randomly.

"What's wrong with Chasing the Wind?" Li Shiyin handed the water to Qin Ran. "Haha, Master, Chasing the Wind is so dirty, and got you dirty too!"

"Cough..." Qin Ran didn't dare look at Li Shiyin. He felt guilty for some reason, and took the water from the side, replying: "No... nothing!"

"I feel like I heard Chasing the Wind talking!" Li Shiyin said.

"Oh? Really?" Only then did Qin Ran react, recalling that he had forgotten to show off. He said to Chasing the Wind: "Come, Chasing the Wind, Chasing the Wind, come, call me!"

"Dad..." Chasing the Wind mumbled.

"Wow!" Li Shiyin was shocked. "Chasing the Wind can really talk now?!" Although unclear.

Amazing. She hugged Chasing the Wind and happily spun circles. After a while, she put Chasing the Wind down and said to it: "Chasing the Wind, call me!"

Chasing the Wind was still dizzy from the spinning. It blinked its cute big eyes and blurted out: "Mom mu~!"

"Pfft!" Qin Ran spit out a mouthful of boiled water, his hair standing on end in fright.

"No, no, call me big sister!" Fortunately the silly apprentice didn't notice anything wrong. She kept correcting Chasing the Wind.

"Meow meow?" Chasing the Wind was puzzled.

"No, big sister!" Li Shiyin persisted.

"Eld... er..." Chasing the Wind was confused.

"Hehe..." Qin Ran calmly drank his water at the side and chuckled: "Teaching Chasing the Wind to speak, is that something normal people can do?"

"Oh!" Li Shiyin sighed. "Chasing the Wind is just too stupid!"

Qin Ran's gaze slanted at her over his cup. He didn't know who was more stupid.

"Master... what does dad mean?" Li Shiyin asked again. "Chasing the Wind calls you dad?"

"It means father, dad, that kind of meaning." Qin Ran's tone carried no small amount of pride.

"Oh..." Li Shiyin nodded, then quietly mumbled: "Then calling me big sister is no good."

"What?" Qin Ran asked.

"Nothing!" Li Shiyin hurriedly replied, then hastily changed the topic: "Master, where did you go this morning? Why did you come back like that? And slept the whole day too."

Qin Ran glanced at her. "Adult matters, children shouldn't ask!"

"I'm not a child!" Li Shiyin pouted.

"How is your Guiding Starlight Art practice coming along?" Qin Ran asked.

"Mas...ter..." Li Shiyin dragged out, helplessly saying: "You're getting muddled. I haven't even started practicing yet! How could I practice these days? It was raining last night, let's see if it rains again today. I can't practice tonight if it does."

That was right, Qin Ran nodded. The night before last night they were at the Hengduan Mountains range. It rained last night too. The Guiding Starlight Art guided starlight. It was the same as when building the foundation. For the first practice, it was best at night when the power of the stars was most abundant.

But he would not admit his mistake, only saying: "Then practice tonight."

"Oh..." Li Shiyin sighed. "Why the hurry, Master?"

"When I tell you to practice, you should obediently practice. Why so much talking?" Qin Ran said.

He didn't know when the demon beasts would officially revolt. If he didn't finish the lifebound sword before the revolt, there would be many variables afterwards.

But once the lifebound sword was done, there would be many more options...