A song of broken Liver and Intestines

After dinner, Qin Ran jumped upstairs and took out the homemade flute he made, blowing into it with a "woo woo woo" sound.

The flute was something he had randomly put together himself, so the pitch was very inaccurate. He didn't actually know how to play the flute either, just blowing randomly into it. After blowing into it for so many days, he had finally managed to get some semblance of a tune out of it.

Li Shiyin finished her meal, then took her sword out for a stroll, circling around Dan Peak before coming back with the dusk. Seeing Qin Ran blowing his flute on the roof, she flew right up.

"Master, your flute is out of tune," said Li Shiyin. She put away her sword and sat down next to Qin Ran, hugging the scabbard.

Qin Ran glanced at her, not wanting to pay her any mind. That his flute sounded out of tune was something he knew perfectly well himself!

She had no eye for subtlety!

As the song came to an end, he held the flute in his hand and said slowly to Li Shiyin, "I think you should really learn how to cook... I'm always the one cooking meals and washing dishes. How does that look? It's like I'm serving you. Who's the master and who's the disciple here?"

"Mas...Master, it's not that bad!" Li Shiyin said somewhat embarrassedly, "It doesn't feel right to always have you cook, esteemed elder. But I...you saw what happened last time."

"Sigh..." Qin Ran sighed as he recalled the disastrous state of the kitchen that time, then picked up his flute to play again.

At that moment, imbued with emotion, although it was still not in tune, the sound of the flute at least carried a melancholy, sorrowful flavor.

Chasing the Wind had spent the entire day with Li Shiyin digging a pond, getting completely covered in mud and filth. When he had time, Qin Ran gave him a bath. The cat was washed clean, but his fur was all fluffed up. Now he was squatting nearby, diligently licking himself clean.

Seeing this, Li Shiyin placed her sword horizontally across her lap and pulled Chasing the Wind over into her arms, rubbing his head. Then she cleared her throat and started singing to the dusk falling over Dan Peak:

"Of what splendid grace is his remarkable form, standing alone above the world in his elegance;

His beauty could topple cities, his virtues become known through word of mouth.

Jade pendants adorn his collar in a display of purity, vying in fragrance with secluded orchids;

Gently nurturing his affections away from worldly vulgarity, upholding noble aspirations towards the high clouds..."

Her voice was like a clear spring flowing by, her mood distant and lingering. As it rang out in the dusk, it welcomed the impending night.

Qin Ran's blurting and blaring on the flute stopped unconsciously. Outside the hut, on the grass, in the woods, on Dan Peak, only Li Shiyin's clear and captivating singing voice echoed back.

She sang for quite a while until the dusk had deepened into night, with the skies sprinkling down starlight before she finally stopped.

The air was still for a good while. Li Shiyin giggled and turned to look at Qin Ran, asking, "Master, how was my singing?"

He hadn't expected his foolish disciple to be so talented. Qin Ran was silent for a while, but really couldn't bring himself to go against his conscience and say she sang poorly. He nodded. "It sounded nice."

"Hmph, no one in Danyang City can compare to my singing," Li Shiyin said proudly as she raised her chin.

This, Qin Ran didn't believe. He retorted, "Anyone who sings better than you got beaten up by you, right?"

"Hehe!" Li Shiyin lowered her head, embarrassed.

"Hm?" Qin Ran was surprised. Was that really what happened?

"How do you know how to sing?" he asked Li Shiyin.

"My name is Li Shiyin. Shiyin, shiyin! Of course I'd know how to sing!" Li Shiyin said.

"Can you write poetry then?"

"No!"

Qin Ran rolled his eyes. Yet she was still so brazen about it.

"What song was that you sang?" he continued asking.

"'Chu Songs'!" Li Shiyin replied. "What North Chu person doesn't know how to sing the 'Chu Songs'?"

Qin Ran looked at her without saying anything more... There was a North Chu person right here who didn't know how to sing them.

"So..." He hesitated for a moment before asking, "Do you know how to play the flute then?"

"No," Li Shiyin shook her head.

Qin Ran breathed a sigh of relief. At least that wasn't too embarrassing.

"But I can play the guzheng!" Li Shiyin said with a laugh.

Qin Ran fell silent again. It didn't seem much better.

"Don't feel ashamed, Master. When you first start learning an instrument, it always sounds bad. My guzheng playing wasn't good at first either," Li Shiyin consoled. "Besides, your flute is out of tune. Can't blame you. I'll find time later to bring Gao Yunshan here. He can make you a flute and teach you how to play."

That was actually quite consoling...

Qin Ran's heart was pockmarked into little pieces. Finally, struggling, he asked, "So when did you start learning the guzheng?"

"Hmm..." Li Shiyin thought back for a moment. "Five years old I think! I can't remember if it was five or six."

Qin Ran sighed. It didn't seem it could get much better.

Abruptly shifting the topic, he scolded, "Look how late it is already. Why haven't you started cultivation yet?!"

But Li Shiyin was already long used to his empty yelling. She wasn't afraid of him anymore. Facing his scolding, she just stuck her tongue out at him.

The stars had indeed already carpeted the night sky. The starry sky above the mountain peak in summer felt especially close, as if you could reach out and touch them.

Li Shiyin sat down cross-legged on the rooftop, the starry sky right above her head. She didn't need to set up a formation like when she was building her foundation. Her affinity with the stellar forces was already high enough now that she could directly draw them down.

In particular, her divine sense had taken shape.

Li Shiyin closed her eyes. In the vast sea of perception, an image of herself appeared - the embodied form of her soul.

This embodied soul raised its hand, stirring the sole drop of "seawater" in the sea of perception - her divine sense - making it flow and disappear from the void, reappearing in physical space.

The embodied soul standing in the sea of perception looked up to see the stars in the sky raining down dots of light - the stellar forces. She made the "seawater" rise up to gather all the falling specks of light, then brought them back and instilled them into her body.

The stellar forces circulating within her body began absorbing these dots of light.

With this primer, a strange attracting force emanated from Li Shiyin's body, gathering all the specks of light falling from the starry sky.

Using her mystical powers, she levitated the Qingxing Sword in front of her and slowly found its balance point, channeling in the stellar forces.

Qin Ran stood watch nearby. From his perspective as an onlooker, Li Shiyin's entire body was covered in specks of light, as if there were many fireflies lighting up her clothes. She was shining as the Qingxing Sword floated before her, with a band of stellar light connecting her palm to the sword. The originally pitch-black sword, from hilt to tip, was being eroded by the light bit by bit until the entire blade was illuminated.

With the stellar forces completely instilled into the Qingxing Sword, Li Shiyin opened her eyes. Still speckled with light, she stood up and grasped the hilt of the sword before her, unsheathing it and somersaulting down from the rooftop.

Her swordplay began.

Empowered by the stellar forces, each of Li Shiyin's moves felt exceptionally mighty. After a few sets of moves, she took a step forward, gathering all the stellar light on the Qingxing Sword towards its tip, concentrating it into a single beam that shot out towards the grasslands ahead, blasting out a small crater.

"A inferior substitution for sword qi..." Qin Ran evaluated with a shake of his head, dissatisfied.

This move expended all the stellar light on the sword, yet only caused minimal damage. It would be fine if she hadn't comprehended sword qi yet, but once she did, this move would become completely useless. And with Li Shiyin's talent for the sword, her sword qi was nearly ready to emerge.

"What a mediocre move," he concluded.

Li Shiyin channeled stellar forces back into the Qingxing Sword as Qin Ran roughly estimated - there was a half-minute gap after firing off all the starlight before she could recharge it.

"Try the attack range," he called out to Li Shiyin.

Li Shiyin obeyed, firing off the stellar forces she had just gathered towards the furthest point she could aim at.

In the end, Qin Ran approximated about 50 meters at most, the same as the effective range of a handgun.

"Slightly longer attack range than sword qi...not too mediocre," he reconsidered.

Li Shiyin brandished her sword for a while more before jumping back onto the rooftop.

"What are the specifics of the boosts it provides?" Qin Ran asked. That was the main effect of this move.

"A bit faster speed, a bit less power," Li Shiyin recalled. "About four or five times my usual speed, and around double my usual power."

"Does it only consume stellar forces? Or does it damage the body too?" Qin Ran continued asking.

"Just consumes stellar forces..." Li Shiyin replied. "Also, once I activate the Stellar Convergence skill, it forms a connection to the stellar forces between heaven and earth. At night when stellar forces are abundant, the consumption balances out with what I absorb, so I can keep it up indefinitely. But stellar forces are sparse during the day so I'd have to supplement it with my own mystic power, and can't maintain it for long."

"Hmm!" Qin Ran nodded. As long as he was certain this move would not harm himself, he felt at ease. He gave his final evaluation, "It seems this move is pretty good. Next, practice well and try to get it to where you can use it freely."

"Yes, Master!" Li Shiyin obediently responded.