The Cat Scratching Board

When Chasing the Wind was small, he was tiny, like a cat. Qin Ran raised him like a cat, letting him sleep on the sofa or in his and Li Shiyin's bed.

But in the blink of an eye, Chasing the Wind grew so big, he could tear down the house...

The sofa was torn apart by him, and now that he's a big guy, it's not suitable for him to sleep with people anymore. So...he has nowhere to sleep now.

What's more, these days Qin Ran is still angry at him for wrecking the house. So he has to sleep outside on the grass every day.

Sleeping on the grass isn't a long-term solution. It's nice weather now, but what if it rains... Plus, with Long Qiqi newly arrived, she has nowhere to sleep either. So building them lodgings is the most urgent matter.

Qin Ran hasn't done anything else these past few days, just building lodgings for them. By this afternoon, they were finally completed.

A small one-storey brick house, partitioned into three rooms, with a wood house placed horizontally and vertically around it, enclosing Dan Peak's old locust tree, looking as if under the shade of the locust tree.

The outermost room has the best lighting and is left for Li Shiyin's cultivation. The middle room where the sunlight is completely blocked by the locust leaves, appearing dark, is Long Qiqi's room. The innermost room that no one wanted is Chasing the Wind's.

After the rooms were built, everyone ran in and out, looking around. Although there's nothing inside the bare rooms now, they still played tag happily.

Long Qiqi went in and out twice. Discovering something strange, she avoided the childish duo of Li Shiyin and Chasing the Wind, running over to ask Qin Ran, "Why is the inside so much bigger than it looks from the outside?"

"Because of the Universe Formation!" Li Shiyin shouted from the doorway.

Long Qiqi looked at Li Shiyin, not understanding why this silly girl was so smug.

"The formation, did you set it up?" she asked.

"My master set it up!" Li Shiyin raised her chin, still very smug.

Long Qiqi couldn't help asking, "What does it have to do with you?"

"Nothing!" Li Shiyin replied, not discouraged at all.

Long Qiqi rolled her eyes. She really had no way to deal with someone so shameless.

"Meow..." Chasing the Wind ran out of his room, streaking over to rub against Qin Ran's legs. Then he turned around and crashed into Li Shiyin's arms.

With his size, it's a good thing it's Li Shiyin... If it were anyone else, like Tian Wenjin, they definitely wouldn't be able to carry Chasing the Wind.

Li Shiyin steadily caught him. With Chasing the Wind's head facing Long Qiqi, he obediently wrinkled his lips and bared his fangs at Long Qiqi, looking very fierce!

Qin Ran watched from the side, shaking his head helplessly.

Over the past few days because of Long Qiqi, the relationship between Li Shiyin and Chasing the Wind had clearly improved a lot. When facing Long Qiqi, they were always on the same side.

It gave the feeling of...fools uniting to isolate the wise.

Long Qiqi is smart, sinister, and gloomy. She is clearly not of the same style as the two silly and carefree Li Shiyin and Chasing the Wind.

"The relationships here are really harmonious," Tian Wenjin said with a smile.

He wasn't being sarcastic. He sincerely...envied them.

Among the peaks where cultivators dwell, which has this kind of lively atmosphere? There is only the immortal cultivators' lofty attitude and sinister scheming.

"You're welcome to come often if you like it," said Qin Ran.

"I still owe you guys 4500 spirit stones..." said Tian Wenjin. "I'll come often from now on."

"Heh heh!" Qin Ran shook his head.

After playing for a while in the new house, Li Shiyin took Long Qiqi and Chasing the Wind shopping for bedroom supplies. Tian Wenjin went to the Earth Flame Chamber to watch over Huang Feiyu.

Qin Ran had nothing to do at the moment, so he went to the riverbank, plucked half the leaves off the awakening grass, and spread out a bamboo winnowing basket to dry them under the eaves of the wood house.

He took a few awakening grass leaves and put them in a cup like tea leaves, steeping them in hot water.

What effect does awakening grass have? To nourish the soul.

Awakening grass can be used to refine Soul Fusion Pill, which is a necessary pill to speed up the fusion of flesh and soul after possession.

So who needs awakening grass? Naturally, the body snatchers.

So is Qin Ran a body snatcher? Strictly speaking, yes.

He crossed over from another world into this one, he wasn't originally a person of this world. Until he possessed the body of an infant, fusing his soul with the infant's and turning the infant's flesh into his own, he became a person of this world.

In a sense, what he did was snatch a body...

So his soul and body were a little incompatible. Yes, but apparently he only noticed this issue when cultivating the soul-tempering mnemonic on Dan Peak.

He planted awakening grass...because he wanted to refine Soul Fusion Pill.

But only cultivators at the Body Integration Stage can refine Soul Fusion Pill. He still doesn't know how. He can only settle for steeping awakening grass tea to drink...

And this wasn't the first time he'd drunk awakening grass tea...

Qin Ran carried the awakening grass tea to the sunshade by the deep pit. He put down the cup on the low table and lay down on the deck chair, taking out a jade slip from his Cosmic Bag. He immersed his mind and began studying it.

Recorded in the jade slip was an eye skill called the Phantasm Realm, an eye skill for bewitching the mind and opening an illusory realm.

After being restricted by the dark twice when going out, Qin Ran had wanted to learn an eye skill long ago. And now another excursion was at hand, so he had to hurry up and cultivate it.

According to Qin Ran's understanding, this eye skill was about inversely changing light rays to alter what enemies see with their eyes, thus achieving an illusory effect.

Overall it was a relatively ordinary skill. After all, once cultivators reach a slightly higher level, they don't like using their eyes to look at things.

But it matched very well with the fundamental skill Qin Ran practiced, the Water Flower Heart Sutra, like Qin Ran's hiding technique that resembled the ephemeral flower in the mirror, his water duplicates, the illusory flowers in the water, and his defensive technique that turned his body into water, like a dreamscape. They all had an illusory nature.

After Qin Ran finished reading the contents of the jade slip, he put it down, picked up the awakening tea on the table and took a sip. His inner power automatically operated, going towards the eye's Bright Hall acupoint according to the jade slip...

While cultivating the Phantasm Realm, Li Shiyin returned with Long Qiqi and Chasing the Wind.

She was seen flying on a sword, holding Chasing the Wind in her arms, with Long Qiqi on her back...

It's a good thing she's Li Shiyin. If it were someone else, like Tian Wenjin, they definitely wouldn't be able to carry both Chasing the Wind and Long Qiqi.

Chasing the Wind is quite big now, about the size of a large dog. Held in Li Shiyin's arms, it looked very disproportionate. His weight might not even be certain.

However, Chasing the Wind himself had no self-awareness at all. He still mewled coquettishly, feeling it was perfectly suitable. You could see the moment he touched the ground, he excitedly jumped out of Li Shiyin's arms. The eye could only capture his afterimage as he madly streaked into his room, crashing into the door with a "bang", making a hole.

"Meow meow, ze is sick..." he called out.

Qin Ran looked back at the door that had only been alive for less than a day, and couldn't help sighing to the sky.

He was worried about just how many things Chasing the Wind would ruin in the future...

"Should make a scratching post for Chasing the Wind to sharpen his claws..." Qin Ran thought, opening his mouth to say to Li Shiyin, "Shiyin, why don't you carve a scratching post for Chasing the Wind!"

"Scratching post?" Li Shiyin put Long Qiqi down at this time, asking puzzledly.

"For Chasing the Wind to sharpen his claws, so he doesn't wreak havoc on other things."

"Oh oh!" Li Shiyin understood with a nod. "Okay..."

She asked Chasing the Wind inside the house, "Chasing the Wind, what would you like?"

"Daddy meow..." came Chasing the Wind's voice from inside the hole.

"?" Qin Ran suddenly had an ominous feeling.