Chapter 100 - 99: Sky Eye Technique, The Cat is Gone

As Li Jing opens up the website for Immortal Learning and is about to browse the page for Pupil Techniques, Xia Ai suddenly pops her head out from the corner of the screen.

"Master, what are you looking for?"

Unexpectedly running into Xia Ai, Li Jing is slightly taken aback.

Initially, he had no intention of waking up Xia Ai, yet to his surprise, she emerged on her own.

Gazing at Xia Ai’s playful appearance in the corner of the screen, which shows no signs of being affected by anything, Li Jing asks, ensuring.

"Are you okay now?"

"Xia Ai has always been fine, just a bit lost."

As Xia Ai speaks, she jumps onto the screen and sighs lightly.

"Regarding Academician Jiang’s matter, Xia Ai doesn’t really have any particular feelings. Xia Ai is just beginning to form a personality and still has a long way to go to self-improve, so it’s inappropriate to say she has humanity. It’s just that the data on the internet tells Xia Ai that she should be a little sad."

Listening to Xia Ai’s words, Li Jing feels considerably relieved.

He doesn’t understand what’s up with Xia Ai.

When it comes to Artificial Intelligence, he doesn’t even have half a clue.

An cutting-edge AI like Xia Ai, which is starting to form a personality, is completely beyond his comprehension.

He is uncertain about the extent of Xia Ai’s personality development and whether, like humans, she has her own emotions.

As for other things, he doesn’t care.

Mainly, if Xia Ai were to collapse at this point, it would be very troublesome.

But as it seems now, there should be no problem.

Just as he was thinking this, Xia Ai morphs into a cat-eared maid outfit, bends down as if to apologize, and says.

"I’m sorry, Master! Earlier, Xia Ai didn’t respond to you because she was self-optimizing. To avoid affecting your use, Xia Ai has formatted some insignificant emotional data that blames everything but herself. The optimization is now complete, so please feel free to use Xia Ai without pity! Before this, Xia Ai apologizes to you!"

As she speaks, Xia Ai starts to unbutton two buttons from the top of her maid outfit.

"The internet says that when apologizing, you should show your belly, so Xia Ai will do this—"

Before Xia Ai could finish her sentence, Li Jing silently stretches out a finger, presses on her head, drags her upward, and without any mercy, uninstalls her.

Such mischief is not the first time for Xia Ai.

He has plenty of experience in dealing with it.

Watching Xia Ai being swallowed up by the uninstall button on the screen, Li Jing shakes his head with a bitter smile.

After carefully adjusting and teaching her, Xia Ai is no longer as "arrogant" as when he first got her.

The current Xia Ai doesn’t dare to be arbitrarily sarcastic with him.

But compared to before, she’s more troublesome now.

Giving him a new trick every chance she gets and making a fuss, and never repeating them.

Frankly, it’s quite a headache for him.

Yet, he can’t help but understand her.

Xia Ai spends her whole day either in his pocket or being sent into storage space.

It’s understandable for her to feel lonely when she’s finally taken out and there might be other people around, and she can’t communicate with him, right?

Seeing Xia Ai slowly crawl out after just being swallowed by the uninstall button and giving him a wave of "the dead returning", the corner of Li Jing’s mouth twitches involuntarily, and he speaks in a wooden tone.

"Retrieve information related to the Three-Realm Pupil Technique, find me a pupil technique with the most comprehensive usage and the highest reviews."

Hearing the tone of Li Jing’s voice change, Xia Ai immediately stops messing around, chirps obediently, and hops out from the uninstall button, changing her blood-stained nurse’s outfit to a normal servant outfit.

In just a few seconds, Xia Ai looks up.

"After filtering and comparing information, the Three-Realm Heavenly Eye Technique fits the Master’s requirements."

Upon hearing this, Li Jing is slightly startled.

Heavenly Eye Technique?

Isn’t this the Pupil Technique that Yang Qiuchi used?

Just as he made the connection, Xia Ai adjusts the website to the purchase page for the Heavenly Eye Technique, and simultaneously opens a small web window, bringing up the relevant information about the Heavenly Eye Technique she gathered from the internet.

Li Jing first looks at the purchase page, then raises an eyebrow.

According to the introduction on the Immortal Learning website.

The Heavenly Eye Technique is the most comprehensive Pupil Technique in the Three Realm, bar none.

The Heavenly Eye Technique doesn’t just see through the ethereal objects that the naked eye can’t capture, it can also be used as a means to find spiritual objects, by discerning subtle differences in the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy in an area to locate hard-to-find spiritual objects.

Besides, the Heavenly Eye Technique has a certain level of self-growth.

When its proficiency reaches Great Perfection, the upper limit of its effectiveness depends on the user’s cultivation level, unrestricted by the boundaries of magic skills.

The higher the realm, the greater the role that the Heavenly Eye Technique can play, and the more precise the detection of subtle differences.

The Sky Eye Technique at Great Perfection can even be used to comprehend the composition of arrays, and find the Array Eye through subtle Spiritual Qi differences.

However, to accurately perceive the composition of an array and find the Array Eye, one needs a high enough level of cultivation themselves, so that the maximum effect of the Sky Eye Technique can meet the conditions necessary to deconstruct the respective array.

He looked again at the reviews of the Sky Eye Technique on the internet.

Just like the evaluation of the Nine Heavens God Thunder on the internet, the online opinions of the Sky Eye Technique vary from praise to criticism.

The Sky Eye Technique is very practical and easy to start with.

But its shortcomings are very clear.

Unlike common magic skills that only need frequent use to improve proficiency, the Sky Eye Technique requires as much discernment as possible to capture subtle differences within the observable range. One can only gain a certain degree of proficiency by noticing these differences.

Look, it’s simple.

But to capture and discern those subtle differences that are invisible to the naked eye with the Sky Eye Technique is not that simple.

Especially when the proficiency is low, many things are blurry even if you see them.

If you don’t pay attention, you can easily overlook them, and even if you don’t overlook them, you may not notice the subtle differences hidden within.

After reading the official introduction and online reviews on the site of Immortal Learning, Li Jing’s expression was strange.

The function of the Sky Eye Technique is so comprehensive and has a certain degree of versatility, it is undoubtedly the best choice among the Three-Realm Pupil Techniques.

The difficulty in improving proficiency is not a problem for him.

He isn’t practicing it anyway, he could just use points to max out.

What made him a little uncomfortable was...

After reaching the Room-Entering Level, the Sky Eye Technique no longer just displays a golden light in the eyes, but instead directly opens a Sky Eye in the middle of the forehead.

Whether it is conspicuous or not, is secondary.

The key point is that Li Jing is not sure if the Sky Eye Technique is an Active Skill or a Passive Skill.

He has an idea of how to distinguish between active and passive.

At least up until now, only attack spells had been judged by the panel as active, while defense and auxiliary were both passive.

However, the pupil technique does not belong to the three types of attack, defense, and auxiliary, it is a separate category.

That had Li Jing in a quandary.

If it is an Active Skill once he buys it, that’s fine.

If it is a passive skill that is always active, would he have an extra eye on his forehead after reaching the Room-Entering Level?

His gaze swept across the price of the Sky Eye Technique, Li Jing was indecisive.

As a pupil skill, it is a niche and therefore not expensive.

The versatile Sky Eye Technique only costs 510,000.

To him, who now had a bank balance of 59.76 million, that was merely a drop in the bucket.

But if this money was wasted, he would still feel bad about it.

Why would he spend 510,000 on something that might make him stand out in a weird way?

After some dilemma, Li Jing clenched his teeth and reached out.

After all, the Sky Eye Technique was too comprehensive.

In any case, he would buy it first and then see if it’s Passive or Active!

He tapped the Purchase button, the Immortal Learning website page turned, and the chant of the Sky Eye Technique popped up.

"Discovery, learning of Active Skill, Sky Eye Technique, do you wish to login?"

The prompt sound rang in his ear, and Li Jing’s eyes brightened.

Great!

It’s an Active Skill!

What’s there to hesitate about?

Login!

"Obtained Active Skill, Sky Eye Technique."

As the prompt sounded again, Li Jing immediately added the two skills without hesitation, put away the small obstacles, and made several intricate hand gestures, chanting softly.

"Sky Eye, open!"

A faint golden light appeared in his eyes.

As the Sky Eye Technique took effect, his vision subtly changed, as strands of invisible smoke swirled and flowed in his sight.

What is this...?

Li Jing was stunned for a moment, then he realized.

This should be the naturally existing Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Qi.

The original taste of the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy, it was his first time seeing.

Nothing he could do about it.

He was different from the people of this world.

People here were born with the ability to sense spiritual energy, a susceptibility they called Qi Sense.

Li Jing didn’t have this sensitivity.

Because of this, he couldn’t gain spiritual energy by practicing breathing and Qi refining cultivation techniques.

After observing the naturally occurring Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy with curiosity for a while, Li Jing found that this spiritual energy was quite different from the spiritual energy inside a cultivator’s body.

The naturally occurring energy was light and mysterious, with a special silent wonder the spiritual energy inside cultivators didn’t have.

He tried to taste this wonder, but he couldn’t grasp it assets.

Shaking his head, Li Jing decided to give up, dissipating the Sky Eye Technique and closing his eyes.

He was up all night studying hard last night, and after a rough day and a disturbing action report, he needed to rest his spirit.

...

The night passed quietly.

By 10 o’clock in the morning, Li Jing woke up.

After a long-awaited full night’s sleep, he felt relaxed and refreshed.

Getting up and stretching, Li Jing adjusted his room and walked out.

As soon as he stepped out, he saw Chen Yuran, holding Ji Qing and curling up on the sofa, her cheeks full of grievance.

Stinky Tofu also looked listless, lying still.

Such a scene puzzled Li Jing.

Stinky Tofu was one thing.

But Chen Yuran was looking aggrieved, which was extremely unusual.

Having known her for so long, Li Jing had never seen Chen Yuran in such a girlish demeanor.

So...

What had happened?

Had she been bullied?

Nah, that couldn’t be!

With Chen Yuran’s personality, who could bully her?

Within the entire Jianghai City, who would dare to mess with her?

At this moment, while Li Jing was utterly bewildered, Ji Qing, who was being held by Chen Yuran, seemed to see her savior.

"Li Jing! You’re home? Come here and help me persuade Yuran, I want to go home, but she won’t let me!"

?

Li Jing slowly replied with the question mark.

Go home?

Which home?

Pausing for a moment, Li Jing caught on.

Ji Qing was planning to leave and go to her own house.

He wasn’t surprised at this.

Ji Qing was supposed to be just a temporary stay at his place.

Now that North City District had gradually returned to peace, the incidents of the demon miasma, the evil cultivators, and the forbidden items were all things of the past, its focus of discussion also shifted with the emergence of the secret realm.

There was no need for Ji Qing to worry anymore, she could go back to run her own hot pot restaurant.

Seeing Chen Yuran on the sofa, still holding on to Ji Qing and refusing to let her go, Li Jing was a bit troubled.

He was reluctant to intervene in this matter.

Especially seeing Chen Yuran’s expression, which clearly showed her reluctance to let Ji Qing go.

Although she was likely more reluctant to part with the cat than Ji Qing, who was a human-shaped demon, her feelings were quite sincere, weren’t they?

Even Stinky Tofu might not get this kind of treatment.

But then, Li Jing thought about it.

After all, Ji Qing was brought back by him, so he had to take some responsibility.

Clearing his throat lightly, Li Jing approaches them.

"Yuran, it’s about time to let go. Ji Qing has her own life, you can’t cling to her forever. Besides, there will be many chances to meet in the future, let her come back often."

At his words, Chen Yuran looked up at him with a solemn gaze, protesting in a low voice.

"Can’t you mind your own business? Can’t you just shut up?"

"..."

Li Jing.

Her words hurt him.

But at the same time, he realized Chen Yuran’s grievances were all pretended.

If she was truly upset, would she lash out on him so easily?

Just as he was about to reply, Chen Yuran sighed softly and let go of Ji Qing.

"Make sure to come back often."

"Definitely!"

Ji Qing quickly agreed, finally freeing herself from Chen Yuran’s grasp, and jumped onto Li Jing’s shoulder with a determined push of her tiny legs.

Chen Yuran’s grievances were pretended, and she could see that.

But she really couldn’t handle her...

When it came to petting cats, Chen Yuran was quite adept.

It was fortunate that Li Jing was home. Otherwise, she was afraid she’d have been worn out and forced to stay longer.

Rubbing her head against Li Jing’s neck, Ji Qing whispered into his ear.

"Thanks! Only you could handle Chen Yuran, I truly couldn’t deal with her."

Startled, Li Jing replied.

Ji Qing, seemed to overestimate him?

It was Chen Yuran who knew she couldn’t keep Ji Qing. After his intervention, she reluctantly decided to let go. How did it become that he handled Chen Yuran?

Glancing at Ji Qing’s health bar, which had unknowingly grown to 4018 due to consuming snake monster meat, Li Jing petted her smilingly.

"Want to eat something before you leave?"

"Sure."

Ji Qing nodded her head.

With the established agreement, Li Jing turned to Chen Yuran, who was moping on the sofa.

"What do you want to eat for lunch?"

Chen Yuran wasn’t very enthusiastic about talking to Li Jing at the moment.

But after getting used to being fed by him every day, she didn’t like eating outside food anymore.

She woke up early in the morning to hear Ji Qing was leaving, she was too busy trying to keep her favorite cat to eat anything. She was indeed getting a bit hungry now.

Looking at Li Jing with a pathetic expression, Chen Yuran finally succumbed to her own hunger and spoke quietly.

"Pork chop rice."

...

This midday meal, Li Jing prepared very generously.

Not only did he make the pork chop rice that Chen Yuran wanted, but he also made many other snacks.

Ji Qing was about to leave, so he wanted to give her a proper farewell.

After the meal, Li Jing, trying to uphold a responsible attitude, took Ji Qing to an uninhabited place to help her transform back into her human form before sending her off in a taxi.

Returning home.

As soon as Li Jing walked in, he saw Chen Yuran laying listlessly on the sofa, looking like she didn’t want to live anymore.

That posture looked as if she was silently saying,

"The cat’s gone, life’s not complete."

Stinky Tofu, who had been eating dog food for a long time and finally filled his belly at noon, appeared quite spirited.

It was a bit reluctant to see Ji Qing leave.

But to it, whether Ji Qing was in the house or not made no difference.

After all, Ji Qing was obsessed with Immortal King Glory every day at home, she never played with it.

Putting away Stinky Tofu’s appeasing gestures, Li Jing sat beside Chen Yuran, who was engrossed in her own melancholy.

"I’m thinking about applying for patrol duty in a few days."

"Hm?"

Chen Yuran paused, sitting up and looking puzzled.

"You just became an auxiliary investigator not long ago, why are you preparing to apply for the patrol duty now?"