Chapter 22: Training the Kitty

"Zhu Zhuqing, are you hungry?"

"It's alright, not particularly hungry."

"Oh... then let's go eat. What should we have today? It's been a long time since I've had beef; let's just have beef today." As Zhou Yi said this, he began to look forward to it all on his own.

"..." Zhu Zhuqing was speechless. Since he had already decided, why even ask her?

Ever since Zhou Yi obtained his Third Soul Ring, his appetite had become even larger. Originally, his appetite was equivalent to that of 3 to 4 people, but now it was even more exaggerated; he could polish off half a cow by himself without any issue. What was even more dire was Jin Ling; it was now over 3 meters tall in its true form and had to eat an entire cow per meal.

Fortunately, the Soul Beasts in the Douluo World were generally quite large, and a single thousand-year Soul Beast was enough for them to eat for two or three meals. Moreover, they didn't actually need to eat every day; the Spiritual Power they absorbed daily was enough for their daily needs. Eating was just to enjoy the delicious food and satisfy their cravings.

Not long after, Zhu Zhuqing, who was following behind Zhou Yi to search for prey, watched with her own eyes as Jin Ling transformed into its true form and killed a Thunder Spirit Mad Ox of at least 6,000 years with a single claw.

Zhu Zhuqing hadn't expected that Jin Ling, which didn't look very big usually, was so powerful, and she wore a look of astonishment.

"How about it? Jin Ling is very powerful, right? After all, it's my little brother."

"By the way, there's also you, Zhu Zhuqing. As my friend, you are still too weak right now. Hmm, I'll find a god position for you to play with in the future. A bit-part god like the God of Speed is forget it; how about the Moon God? I feel like that would be very suitable for you..."

"Can you tell me your true strength right now?" Zhu Zhuqing didn't want to listen to his rambling in the latter half and asked directly about the question she cared about most.

"Me? Beating a Soul King is still easy-peasy." Zhou Yi didn't want to crush her self-esteem, so he was slightly modest.

Hearing this, Zhu Zhuqing clenched her fists. She hadn't expected the gap between people to be so large. Zhou Yi thought he was being modest enough, but this strength was already an abnormal monster in the eyes of ordinary people. As for whether what he said was fake, Zhu Zhuqing didn't doubt it at all; she believed that Zhou Yi would not lie to her.

However, she was a girl who didn't accept her fate and didn't admit defeat, so this actually made her want to work even harder.

Seeing the fire in Zhu Zhuqing's eyes, Zhou Yi chuckled. He really hadn't misjudged her; this kind of girl shouldn't become someone else's appendage. She deserved a better outcome, which was why he intended to cultivate her into a powerhouse.

Beside the campfire, the two people and one bird were tucking in. However, the style of Zhu Zhuqing and Zhou Yi was completely different; she was eating the roasted meat and fruit elegantly in small bites, while the two guys next to her were devouring food like black holes.

"This beef is even electric; it's so punchy. Zhu Zhuqing, eat more. We still have to keep training later, and the energy consumed won't be little."

After the meal, Zhou Yi wanted to understand her soul skills to do some targeted strengthening. Her two soul skills were:

First Soul Skill, Nether Thrust: Quickly use sharp claws to assassinate others.

Second Soul Skill, Nether Hundred Claws: A point-penetration attack; one hundred claws strike the same location, with extreme speed and strong destructive power.

After listening to the introduction of her soul skills, Zhou Yi said.

"Actually, the common fault of most Spirit Masters is that their use of soul skills is too rigid. Like your second soul skill, there is a lot of room for operation. I'll teach you other ways to use it."

Zhu Zhuqing learned very attentively and was extremely impressed by Zhou Yi's wild and imaginative ideas.

About two hours passed.

"How is it? Have you learned it?"

"Almost, but not proficient enough yet."

"It's fine as long as you can use it. I'll find you a sparring partner."

Subsequently, Zhou Yi took her to find a sparring partner until they ran into a 1,000-year Iron-Armored Rhino.

"That's the one."

"Can I... beat it?" Zhu Zhuqing was somewhat unconfident. In the past, she was completely helpless against this kind of power and defense-type Soul Beast, and this one was even a thousand-year one.

"Rest assured, I'll be right on the side."

Hearing this, as if she had gained confidence, she rushed up resolutely.

Sure enough, she was completely helpless against it and had to dodge frequently to avoid being rammed by the giant rhino horn.

"Zhu Zhuqing, use the move we just trained to attack its left front leg."

After hearing this, Zhu Zhuqing followed Zhou Yi's live guidance and kept attacking the left front leg with Nether Hundred Claws.

10 minutes later, just as the Iron-Armored Rhino charged at Zhu Zhuqing again, its left front leg suddenly became uncontrollable, causing it to fall flat on its back.

"Quick, claw at its eyes!"

"Nether Hundred Claws!"

Looking at the Iron-Armored Rhino wailing on the ground, Zhu Zhuqing couldn't quite believe it. Was this something she could do? She hadn't even dared to think about it before.

It turned out that the move Zhou Yi taught her was similar to the one he had used on her before. Since her second soul skill had a point-penetration effect, he had her inject soul power with Nether attributes into her claw tips every time, leaving it inside the enemy's body. Even if it had no effect once or twice, accumulating it would cause a fatal blow when detonated inside the enemy's body.

Moreover, her Nether attribute came with a concealment effect, which the enemy wouldn't notice at all in the beginning.

Just now, Zhu Zhuqing had only stared at the Iron-Armored Rhino's eyes to hit them at first; after all, that was an obvious weakness. But when you attack its eyes, you also have to face its strongest weapon, the rhino horn.

If you weren't careful, you would be severely injured, so before Zhou Yi reminded her, she had attacked for a long time without any effect.

And once the Iron-Armored Rhino's left leg was crippled and it fell, its strongest weapon had no use, and its weak point, the eyes, became a sitting duck.

Zhou Yi stepped forward to input Spiritual Power to heal the Iron-Armored Rhino.

The Iron-Armored Rhino was stunned; what were these two doing? But this Spiritual Power was so tempting; give me more, hehe~

This was also Zhou Yi's principle. Since he wasn't eating it, and it was acting as his sparring partner, he couldn't let it be severely injured to death. But he never expected this guy to be thinking about such things.

After finishing the treatment, he directly grabbed its horn and flung it dozens of meters away. It dared not speak out despite its anger; although it was somewhat greedy for the Spiritual Power, it thought about it and ran away anyway.

"Zhu Zhuqing, do you understand? Soul skills are meant to increase your bargaining chips in battle, not to restrict the battle."

"I understand."

In the next ten-plus days, they practiced in the forest during the day and went to the Cloud layer to cultivate and sleep at night.

It is worth mentioning that due to Zhou Yi's Suanni Divine Ability and the fact that one could better contact the moon and the starry sky above the clouds, Zhu Zhuqing's cultivation speed was also soaring.

And Zhou Yi's training for her became easier and easier. Except for the first few days when he personally helped her cultivate combat awareness, it later became her finding prey to train alone, while Zhou Yi would help her guard the flank and cultivate his Divine Ability on the side, personally sparring with her every three days to point out her shortcomings.

As for the Divine Abilities Zhou Yi could cultivate now, besides Suanni, only Fuxi remained; he didn't understand musical temperament at all.

Now he could also use it simply; for example, when cultivating at night, he would stick a talisman on Zhu Zhuqing and himself, with the word "Gathering" written on the talisman.

Of course, what surprised him most was the cultivation of the Dao Scripture. The Dao Scripture was not entirely a cultivation technique; it also contained records of attack methods, mental cultivation methods, movement techniques, and so on.

And he was now faintly close to cultivating a movement technique, or perhaps a mental cultivation method.

This technique is called "Harmonizing with the Light and Dust," a supreme mental cultivation method of the Daoists: harmonize with its light, mingle with its dust, deep and clear, as if it might exist. It can transform one into dust, hiding within the formless (possessing an invisibility effect), and can be said to be without shadow or trace. At the same time, through this method, one can also achieve the effect of shifting form and changing position.

Originally, Zhou Yi had not yet fully comprehended this mental cultivation method, but by relying on his own first three soul skills to take a shortcut, he was barely able to use it.

The first time he cast it, he turned into dust and vanished without a sound, then shifted form and changed shadow to appear behind Zhu Zhuqing and tapped her lightly, scaring her so much that her hair stood on end and she directly activated her martial soul, even her tail bristling, which he found both cute and funny to watch.