Encouraged by Lu Qi, Yun Manman nervously went to find Yan Xi to explain her thoughts.
Yan Xi was silent for a long time, hugging the orange cat into her arms and gently stroking its fur.
She said, "It will be very, very, very tiring. Can my little one persevere?"
Yun Manman clenched her pink paw pads: "I don't know how tiring it will be, but I'll try my best to keep going."
Yan Xi sighed: "Alright, then we'll start training tomorrow."
Yun Manman had thought she would have to argue with her mom for a long time before she agreed, but didn't expect her to agree so quickly.
Yan Xi met the kitten's eyes, which were wide with shock, and smiled slightly: "What? Did you think I wouldn't agree?"
She "poofed" back into her beast form, cuddling the little orange kitten in her embrace and licking her: "I didn't want you to do this training because I couldn't bear to see you suffer."
"But since you have this idea, we'll definitely respect your wishes."
"Our little one wants to protect us now, how wonderful."
Yun Manman lifted her head and licked the scar under the big cat's eye, saying emotionally: "Thank you, Mom."
The rain outside sounded muffled, while inside the room the big cat and little cat cuddled together warmly, whispering quietly.
The next day, Yan Xi and Yan Shuang brought Yun Manman to a dilapidated single-story small house within the mansion.
Yan Shuang used her iris to open a door inside the house, and looking in, there was an endless staircase leading straight down.
Following this staircase for who knows how long, they finally stopped in a spacious area.
It was a platform, with only seats and some cat toys like electric teaser wands and wicker balls placed on the ground. Looking closely, there were cute stickers on the surrounding walls and doors.
The platform faced several doors, seemingly connecting to various rooms.
Yan Shuang bent down to pick up a yellowed grass-woven cricket on the ground, exclaiming in surprise: "So it was here all along. That little Yan Ye used to cry about losing a cricket when he was young, and we could never find it no matter how hard we looked."
"He probably forgot and left it here when he was little."
Seeing Yun Manman's curious gaze, Yan Xi explained: "The clan's young ones all undergo training here when they're small, and play together here during breaks."
If she hadn't gotten lost and could have returned to this world earlier, would she have been able to grow up together with her brothers and sisters?
Yun Manman thought with some regret.
Yan Shuang walked up to one of the doors: "Come on, Manman, go in."
"Once inside, transform back into your beast form and spread out your spiritual power. The devices in the room will emit simulated spiritual power to contend with you..."
She carefully explained the training methods, then added: "If you feel your spiritual power is about to be exhausted, don't force yourself, come out immediately. Got it?"
Yun Manman listened attentively and nodded: "Okay. I understand."
Yan Shuang watched Yun Manman enter the room, saying to Yan Xi with some concern: "I wonder if the little one can persist."
"Why didn't you try to dissuade her? We don't need Manman to charge into danger now. The training is so exhausting."
Yan Xi leaned against the wall with her arms crossed: "Sister, how come you're even more indulgent of Manman than I am?"
"If we love her, then we should respect her choices and give her room to grow."
Yan Shuang's ears twitched: "Ah, you're right."
Inside the room, Yun Manman followed Yan Shuang's instructions and transformed into her beast form, crouching in the dim room.
She slowly spread out her spiritual power, her heart pounding as she waited for the anticipated pain.
Aunt Shuang said that training spiritual power strength is essentially about improving the proficiency and toughness of spiritual power usage through spiritual power confrontation, stimulating the potential within the Yunzheng Clan's beast bloodline when spiritual power is about to be exhausted...
Here it comes.
A wave of spiritual power with no emotional fluctuations came crashing in, colliding with Yun Manman's spiritual power before intertwining.
Yun Manman instantly felt the pressure, concentrating to use her spiritual power to contend with it.
Her spiritual sea gradually began to boil, and Yun Manman started to feel dizzy and have a headache.
Suddenly, a rain of red flowers appeared in her spiritual sea. Looking closely, the flower petals resembled a phoenix's tail - they were phoenix flowers!
The phoenix flowers fell into the spiritual sea, calming the turbulent waves and refreshing Yun Manman's spirit.
So this is the blessing of the divine tree...
With the help of the divine tree, Yun Manman's training process was free of any pain or discomfort.
She only needed to focus on the spiritual power confrontation.
She stayed in the training room for an entire day, coming out to rest before her spiritual power was exhausted, taking the Yunzheng Clan's secret medicine to replenish her spiritual power, then going back in to train, repeating the cycle.
Even with the divine tree's blessing, Yun Manman was still somewhat tired after a day like this.
In the evening while video chatting with Lu Qi, Yun Manman fell asleep mid-sentence.
Lu Qi looked at the curled-up ball of fluff in the projection, his heart melting completely.
"Just one more day, and you'll have to give me your answer..."
That day, when Yun Manman finished her day's training and came out, she found that many of the big cats at home were missing, including Yan Xi.
She asked Yan Shuang in confusion: "Auntie, where's Mom and the others?"
Yan Shuang placed a piece of braised pork in Yun Manman's bowl, her expression calm: "They went to Lingli Town to fight the Abhorrent Beasts."
Yun Manman was startled: "So suddenly?"
She hadn't heard Yan Xi mention anything this morning!
"It happened in the afternoon. A large number of Abhorrent Beasts suddenly appeared in Lingli Town, so Yan Xi and Yan Ye led the army there."
"Yan Xi should have sent you a message, didn't you see it?"
Yun Manman hurriedly took out her communicator and saw the message her mom had sent her.
Yan Xi had reminded her to pay attention to her training time, eat well, rest well, and not to worry about her.
Yun Manman felt warmth in her heart.
After exiting, her gaze fell on the pinned little snake avatar. She thought for a moment, clicked in, and sent a message to Lu Qi.
"Are you free? I've made up my mind."
But after waiting for quite a while, she received no reply. Yun Manman's anxious mood gradually turned to confusion and worry.
Is he busy with something?
What she didn't expect was that she would receive Lu Qi's message several days later.
In the dense forest outside Kafier City.
Four beastman soldiers were escorting a short-haired man with black wings on his back towards the Yali'ou Mountain Range.
Qiao You, bound and urged forward, said weakly: "Stop pushing, I can't walk any faster even if you push... You're not even giving me blood to drink..."
His face was pale, almost transparent, and his dark purple eyes looked pleadingly at the beastman soldier beside him: "Brother, please have mercy, just let me have one sip, I promise I'll walk very fast..."
The beastman soldier looked straight ahead: "Even if you walk slowly, we'll still get there. We're not in a hurry."
Days of interrogation had left Qiao You exhausted, and he finally compromised, revealing that they used a special mineral to control the Abhorrent Beasts, and agreeing to lead them there.
This squad of beastmen was taking Qiao You to scout ahead.
Qiao You rolled his eyes, his bound hands twitching slightly.
Suddenly, the beastman soldiers surrounding him froze, unable to move.
"Hahaha!" Qiao You broke free from the ropes on his body and suddenly spread his wings, flying towards the sky: "You bunch of idiots, you've all been fooled by me!"
Luckily there was a moon tonight, otherwise he couldn't have cast his spell.
Gotta run, gotta run, he could only control them for a few minutes.
Qiao You flapped his thin wings, quickly flying towards the hidden tunnel in the Yali'ou Mountain Range.
He didn't notice the black figure swiftly following far behind him, nor did he see the countless pairs of glowing beast eyes that appeared in the forest after he left.
"General, Qiao You has taken the bait. Colonel Lan has already led the flight team to follow him."
"Good. Keep up. This time we must find the vampires' lair."
"I want to see what this so-called mineral that can control Abhorrent Beasts really is."