Chapter 11: Put It On!

"Boom—!"

The sky was dim, with wild winds howling and lightning flashing and thunder rumbling.

Deep in the forest, there was almost no light.

Ning Rongrong hugged her shoulders, following Qin Jian cautiously as they walked through the woods.

"Why is it so terrifying here?"

She couldn't help but say: "Qin Jian, I don't want to walk anymore, I want to go out."

"We can't go out..."

Qin Jian casually snapped a small branch in front of him and said nonchalantly: "From the moment we came in, we couldn't go out, unless we encounter a life-threatening danger."

"Ah?!"

Ning Rongrong let out a cry of surprise and stopped in her tracks.

"That's not what Dad told me before!"

She widened her eyes and said: "He clearly said it would be as fun as an outing..."

Qin Jian stopped with her; he turned around, feigning great astonishment, and said: "Rongrong, did Sect Master not explain the situation and rules of this place to you clearly?"

"No... no, he didn't..."

Seeing his expression, Ning Rongrong began to feel a bit scared: "What exactly is going on here? Qin Jian, tell me quickly!"

"This is a closed Mimicry Cultivation Ground, and there are only the two of us in this entire world..."

Qin Jian sat on a tree root, then pulled Ning Rongrong down to sit as well, saying: "The terrain here changes once every month; this time it's a forest, next time it could be a desert, a snowy mountain, or perhaps a vast ocean."

Ning Rongrong's eyes gradually widened.

"Not only that, the weather here is even more volatile. Right now it's lightning and thunder, but in a while it might be a torrential rainstorm, or perhaps extreme scorching sun..."

Ignoring Ning Rongrong's increasingly horrified gaze, Qin Jian continued: "Also, once we adapt to these, there will be natural disasters, like volcanic eruptions, snowy mountain collapses, and the like..."

"Then... then can we just hide and not walk every day? I have a tent in my Soul Guidance Device," Ning Rongrong said, her teeth chattering.

Qin Jian sighed helplessly and said: "Then what would we eat every day?"

"That's right, what would we eat every day?" Ning Rongrong said nervously.

Qin Jian pointed ahead and replied: "Every day we will appear at the edge of this space, and a tent will appear at the symmetrical edge one hundred li away; inside that, there is our food and water for the day."

"So, every single day we must cross the entire space to get our food and water, regardless of what the environment is like," he explained.

But after a while, he didn't hear a sound from Ning Rongrong.

"Rongrong?"

Qin Jian turned his head to look, only to see Ning Rongrong with her little head lowered, her hands tightly gripping the hem of her skirt.

"Rongrong, what's wrong?" Qin Jian asked.

But Ning Rongrong just kept her head down, motionless.

Qin Jian couldn't help but wave his hand in front of her eyes: "Rongrong, say something at least..."

"Dad! —"

The next moment, Ning Rongrong suddenly sprang up; she jumped directly onto a tree trunk and shouted loudly at the sky: "I! Do! Not! Want! To! Be! Here! I want! To go back! —"

Qin Jian: "..."

Meanwhile, Ning Fengzhi and Jian Douluo, who were observing this scene from the outside, looked at each other in dismay.

"Dad! I want to go back! I don't want to be here!"

"Don't you love Rongrong anymore? How could you bear to leave Rongrong in such a terrible place?"

"Dad! Rongrong begs you! Rongrong wants to go back!"

"..."

Ning Rongrong vented her grievances toward the sky.

But she shouted for quite a while without receiving any response.

This annoyed her.

"Stinky Dad! Bad Dad! Rongrong hates you!"

"If you don't let Rongrong out, Rongrong will stay here and scold you for a year!"

"You are a stinky Dad! Bad Dad!"

"..."

Outside, Ning Fengzhi was caught between laughter and tears.

Jian Douluo, watching from the side, couldn't help but feel a bit of pity: "Sect Master, should we let her out?"

Ning Fengzhi hesitated, but finally shook his head and said: "No, it was hard enough to harden my heart to coax her inside; if I let her out now, all previous efforts will be wasted."

"I originally thought this little guy Qin Jian would bear a portion of Rongrong's anger, since he was also part of the reason she was tricked into coming in..."

Ning Fengzhi's face was full of speechlessness: "But this guy, instead, put on an innocent look and washed his hands of it entirely, leaving me to bear all of Rongrong's anger."

"Cough... that little guy was never stupid to begin with..."

Jian Douluo looked at the image before him, especially at Ning Rongrong's clamoring, and said: "Now we can only see if Jian'er has any way to steady Rongrong."

"I hope he has a way..."

Ning Fengzhi sighed, his gaze sweeping over the control console nearby, when his expression suddenly changed: "I'm afraid there isn't much time left for him; the weather is about to change..."

"Rumble..."

Inside the cultivation ground, Qin Jian also keenly sensed this change, as the dark clouds in the sky were pressing lower and lower, and the frequency of the lightning and thunder was increasing rapidly.

His expression changed, and he hurriedly jumped onto the tree trunk, grabbing Ning Rongrong's small arm, and said: "Rongrong, stop making a scene, Sect Master won't let you out."

But Ning Rongrong wouldn't listen at all, still shouting and yelling.

"Rongrong! It's about to rain heavily! If you don't want to be soaked like a drowned rat, we must hurry on our way; the faster we get to the supply tent at the opposite edge, the better!" Qin Jian said loudly.

Unfortunately, Ning Rongrong only quieted down for a moment, then said to Qin Jian, "Then I'm definitely not leaving! I don't believe Dad would have the heart to watch me get rained on!"

Qin Jian: "..."

"Boom—!"

The sky grew increasingly dark and gloomy.

"Rongrong, if it really comes to it, can you just put on a raincoat? This is a Storm, there won't be time to take cover later."

Qin Jian sat on a tree trunk with a headache, while Ning Rongrong sat beside him, pouting, refusing to listen to anything he said.

"This little girl has just been spoiled; she's too willful. No matter if what Qin Jian says is right or wrong, she just won't listen!"

Ning Fengzhi slapped the tabletop in some annoyance.

Jian Douluo only kept his gaze fixed tightly on the pair's situation: "The rainstorm is coming..."

"Whoosh—"

The Storm arrived as soon as it was mentioned, giving no time for any preparation.

In an instant, Qin Jian and Ning Rongrong were soaked to the bone.

Ning Rongrong still stared blankly at the sky, as if she were sulking against Ning Fengzhi.

But Qin Jian could not bear to watch her abuse herself like this, so he hurriedly took two raincoats out from his Soul Guidance Device.

"I won't wear it—"

But before the raincoat could reach Ning Rongrong, she flung it away.

Qin Jian frowned, having no choice but to put one on himself first, then held the cloak over Ning Rongrong's head to shield her.

His expression was somewhat stern: "Rongrong, this is a test from the Sect Master for you; if you continue to be this willful, you will only disappoint him."

But Ning Rongrong, in her stubborn and willful state, could not possibly listen: "I'm not listening! I'm not listening! I'm not listening!"

She stretched out both hands and covered her ears tightly...

Qin Jian took a deep breath, then suddenly, regardless of anything else, forced the raincoat onto her, and Ning Rongrong naturally struggled incessantly.

But the next moment she was startled, because Qin Jian's expression was incomparably cold and hard.

He roared in the wind and rain: "Put it on!"

(End of this chapter)