Releasing her hug around Xiao Yao, Sofie backed away while blushing slightly from the close contact.

Earlier, she had been excited upon seeing the qi spell being successfully cast and even though she was slightly depressed upon seeing the fire rabbit explode, Sofie was still excited as it was luckily just something made out of fire qi.

Not knowing what to do with her excitement, Sofie had just decided to hug the nearby Xiao Yao, who had congratulated her over successfully casting the qi spell.

"The strength of the explosion should be able to injure someone in the qi condensation realm. Hm.. but the cast time is really long. From what I could see, it took you a little over 20 minutes from start to finish. Fighting someone, you would at most have 10 to 20 seconds to cast it, if not less time.."

Not seeing the embarrassed Sofie, Xiao Yao stated her thoughts on the qi spell and its usefulness.

The moment Sofie heard it, she was depressed.

10 – 20 seconds..? I-I used a whole 20 minutes to cast it! How am I going to reduce the cast time down to 10 – 20 seconds?

Not knowing what to do, Sofie looked towards the one who presented the problem for answers. Hopefully Xiao Yao could enlighten her on how she could reduce the cast time of the qi spell.

"W-well, I'm not someone speculating in qi spells myself, so I can only say what I heard from a elder once.."

Scratching the back of her head, Xiao Yao looked down at Sofie and saw that she was looking at her with sparkling eyes.

"Hah.. From what I heard, just continue to practice and cast the qi spell again and again.. With time and training, the cast time will reduce."

Sighing shortly to herself, Xiao Yao explained what she had heard the elder from the sect say about it.

Sofie, was disappointed when she heard what Xiao Yao said, but was soon enlightened.

Earlier I used so long to construct the symbols, but now I only use 5 minutes to construct all of them.. Doesn't this mean that as long as I practice enough, I will be able to reduce the time like Senior sister Yao said!?

"Thanks, senior sister Yao!"

Realizing this, Sofie quickly thanked Xiao Yao and sat down to continue her training.

"Hah.. Looks like she didn't give up on her qi spell, well this is good as well.."

Muttering something to herself, Xiao Yao moved to another place in the small training ground and started practicing her spear techniques.

..

The sun was slowly going down in the horizon. Sofie was sitting in a corner of the training ground, completely surrounded by several thousand floating symbols.

Suddenly, the symbols surrounding Sofie started to move and formed together in several strange patterns.

This continued for the next 2 minutes, before the patterns formed by the floating symbols gathered together and formed a small red rabbit.

4 minutes! It had only taken Sofie a little over 4 minutes to cast the [Conjure Fire Rabbit] qi spell! This was a clear improvement compared to the first time she had cast the qi spell, Sofie also smiled happily when she realized how fast she had managed to cast the qi spell.

Reducing the cast speed of the qi spell was relatively easy in the start, but it started to get harder the more she reduced the time. The first time she had reduced the cast time from a little over 20 minutes down to only 10 minutes, while the following times only reduced time by less than 1 minute.

Before she managed to reach around the 4-minute mark in cast time, Sofie had been stuck at around 5 minutes for the last hour, so it wa quite a happy event to finally get there.

Though this also made Sofie realize that reducing the time it took for her to cast the [Conjure Fire Rabbit] qi spell from now on, would be way more difficult and take a way longer time.. at least she was not in a hurry to master the qi spell quickly, so she could take her time learning and mastering the qi spell slowly.

Thinking about how relaxed her time in the scorching fire sect was so far, Sofie remembered how her big sister had talked about her experience in the sect and how she had to participate in some kind of tournament the moment she had entered the sect.

Just the thought of entering some kind of tournament to fight the moment she had entered the sect and started cultivating left Sofie feel bad.. at least it seems that the sect had learned that it was not a good idea to make the newly accepted disciples fight a few days after they had started cultivating..

Sofie was really thankful that she didn't have to go through something as stressful as a tournament.. She really couldn't see any reason as to why she would want to fight others, though she could she some enjoying it, as it was also a good learning experience to fight others with similar strength.

"So.. Sofie.. Sofie.. SOFIE!"

Lost in her own world, Sofie almost jumped into the air upon hearing the loud voice screaming just beside her.

"W-w-what!?"

Confused, scared and shocked, Sofie turned around and looked up at Xiao Yao, who had just scared the living out of her.

"Do you want to go to the dining hall and get something to eat? It's quite late and the sun is about to go down, if we don't go now, we will most likely not get anything to eat before tomorrow!"

Listening to the dreadful words coming out of Xiao Yao's mouth, Sofie panicked to the extreme as she quickly jumped oh the ground and vigorously nodded her head up and down. "YES! I will go!"

"Okay, then let me switch clothes and take a quick shower first, then we will go."

Xiao Yao said with a slightly awkward look, as Sofie closely inspected her clothes, which were completely drenched in sweat from the earlier training at the moment.

At this moment, Sofie felt really thankful that she had chosen to practice qi spells instead of weapon skills.

"I will wait outside the main door."

Understanding that Xiao Yao indeed did need a new set of clothes and a quick shower, Sofie quickly ran ahead of her and soon stood in front of the main door waiting for Xiao Yao to finish cleaning herself up.

..

Time passed by quickly and Sofie had decided to cultivate while she waited for Xiao Yao. Hoping that time would pass faster, so she could get to eat something.

As the small flame inside her dantian slowly grew more and more clear, while also growing smaller and smaller, Sofie heard someone behind her opening a door.

Turning around, Sofie saw Xiao Yao standing in the door with a slight smile at the corner of her lips.

"Shall we get going?"

"YES!"

Happily responding to Xiao Yao's question, both of them made their way towards the dining hall.

..

At the same time, Chen Long and Yue Wan had finally come out of the entrance leading down into the moon garden.

"Hah.. Didn't expect we would meet that damn turtle again..!"

"It's a crystal tortoise! Not a turtle!"

"Whatever.."

Chen Long grumbled to himself while staring at the entrance to the moon garden with narrowed eyes.

"Now it's time to go to the dining hall! I will definitely find Sofie there!"

"The dining hall? I am indeed a bit hungry.."

"I wasn't talking to you!"

"YOU-!"

Arguing back and forth with each other, both Yue Wan and Chen Long made their way towards the dining hall.