After the faction mbers took a copy of the job roster and began walking to the training grounds, Kiera snuck into the back of the amphitheater to avoid watchful eyes.
"Sup, chief?" Kiera asked briskly, "Did you happen to find ti to practice rcy last night?"
Kaze smiled maliciously with fierce green eyes, accenting his nacing smile.
"No? I understand. You're super busy, and all." The pink-haired teen remarked, averting her gaze with an awkward smile. "Maybe next ti?"
"We'll see." He chuckled ominously, "Let's go. You'll need all the ti I can give you."
She swallowed nervously at his strange words. "Okay, I'll be quiet and stuff. Just don't murder , kay? Treat like a good hostage or sothing."
"Must you always play the fool?" Kaze asked in exasperation.
"I only got five minutes until it's no can talk, chief." Kiera replied briskly, "If I don't get it out of my system, I'll be a tragedy magnet, and I'm not a fan of either of those words."
He laughed breathlessly, looking to the sky in disbelief. "Let's go."
The emperor waved his hand, and a spatial rift opened. He grabbed her wrist gently and pulled he through it, making her blush and freak out simultaneously.
He kept walking through another two portals back to back, looking forward to making permanent links in the next week.
Once they warped past the outer gate, Kaze led her to a cave on the far side he set up with sound insolation for maximum quiet and concentration.
"Okay, okay. Not bad." Kiera remarked sassily, "This is a perfect neanderthal love den. I'm about it."
"What happened to no talking?" Kaze chuckled breathlessly.
"Death's not raining from the sky here. So it's okay, right?" She asked playfully.
"I suppose so." He grinned, "In fact, I encourage it. If you can talk during this training session, I'll let you pick out a full outfit from the Luxe.
Now get into the lotus position and prepare to work for that outfit."
Kiera shivered with a nervous smile, not looking forward to whatever he had in store.
Kiera gulped as she got into the lotus position. She didn't talk; it was ti to be serious.
Kaze smiled montarily, but he dropped it and gave her a serious expression.
"I asked about your physique last night and confird that it allows you to accept Qi in both directions." He explained straightly.
"Let's demonstrate what that ans. Activate Minor Vision and observe my Qi flow."
She nodded and activated the technique. When she did, she realized that she had never looked at the emperor using Minor Vision!
Her eyes widened, and she looked down at her body and then back up at him.
"Talk about winning at life!" Kiera cried, "You won the battle, war, and princess.
Your body is like a neverending waterfall leading into end-of-the-world whirlpools!"
His body had lines of warping Qi starting from the top and weaving down channels to feed his ridians in an intricate pattern, showcasing the Paradigm of Divinity technique's flow pattern.
"That's a strange way to put it." Kaze smiled in amusent, "But it's not that inaccurate.
As you can see, my cultivation technique pulls Qi from the atmosphere and then distributes it to my ridians in a specific pattern that looks like waterfalls feeding lower ridians.
Qi distribution differentiates cultivation techniques. That's why higher techniques are more intricate and effective, difficult to learn, and challenging to master."
She nodded, staring at his body in fascination.
"However, as you can see, the Qi isn't moving back up." He continued.
"It needs to start the cycle again before I can intake more. It's extrely inefficient.
With your technique… it's best to show you. Attack with Air Slash."
Kiera's eyes trembled in confusion. "Like… attack you with the technique?"
"Yes." He replied with a slight smile.
"Woah, woah, wait up!" She requested hurriedly, "I'm not sure I'm down with attacking you.
Like, don't get it twisted; I watched you take that reaper scythe to the chest like a champ yesterday, and it was depressingly cool to watch.
So I know my noob slash could probably only cut your t-shirt, but look, chief. That's a hella fashionable t-shirt. One cut would be a devastating loss. It's giving anxiety."
Kaze scoffed breathlessly, looked down at his light-pink button-up, and then back to her with a mocking smile. "Can't you just say that you don't want to attack thinking I might get hurt?
Blaming your weakness on my t-shirt is—"
"Don't call weak!" Kiera demanded with puffed-out cheeks, "I have pink hair; you have a pink shirt. Common denominator—my favorite color.
Plus, your body, outfit, and face are perfect. The idea of ruining perfect things is—hey!"
,m She flushed bright red with anger when she saw his smug smile.
"Don't get full of yourself, broham. You've ticulously sculpted your appearance for maximum aesthetics!" She snapped.
"It's not like I'm a harem applicant because I'm not sugarcoating the obvious alongside the blush parade following you around 24/7."
"Don't worry; I definitely don't think that." Kaze laughed.
He had noted her Yang to Yin Qi ratio was 9/1 yesterday, indicating she was on the bisexual spectrum and nearly lesbian.
Out of curiosity, he used a dual cultivation vision technique to examine her again, and his laughter instantly disappeared. Her Yang Qi level dropped to 66% in less than 24 hours!
By contrast, Sarah and Riley only moved from 10% Yang Qi to 25% after having sex and embracing their bisexuality. That was natural since accepting bisexuality didn't change their attraction to n!
Yin and Yang Qi were triggered by hormones linked to sexual attraction; they weren't an indicator of one's sexuality.
However, the correlation was so high it took an example like Kiera to point out the difference!
Straight people don't just randomly beco 24% attracted to n or won.
It was likely that Kiera wasn't interested in sex and was turned off by male behavior, so her relative attraction to females resulted from her being unattracted to n.
After one session, she was genuinely attracted to [him]. Singular.
The impact of his acceptance of her was horrifyingly unnatural.
Kiera London Snow had so serious issues. And, for the first ti in thousands of years, he had absolutely no idea how to approach a relationship.
"Yo, what's that face for?" Kiera asked nervously, looking at his twitching cheek, "You look like you walked in on your mother having sex. It's creepy A F."
"Just throw an Air Slash at ." Kaze ordered coldly, "I will neither sully my reputation nor my clothing to teach you.
Listen to my directives, and cease squandering ti with simple-minded glib. Use Minor Vision and strike."
Her face heated up in annoyance. "Fine! Prepare for to take my frustration, anxiety, fear, anger, and annoyance out on you. Don't bla if I [sully] that beautiful shirt."
The emperor rolled his eyes and spread his arms out at full wingspan to make a point.
Kiera stood, activated Minor Vision, and pulled her hand back unnaturally, using the full preparation allowance to strike.
She waved it at full force, and a line of warping Qi, over ten tis the size of the best regular faction mber's, shot toward his chest.
Kaze casually waved his hand, grabbed the Qi, and then twisted it over his head.
It crashed over his body and made the Qi waterfalls on it multiply in size and speed. However, his ridians ate all of the Qi instantly without any waste.
"Wh-wh-what the fuck was that!?" Kiera cried in shock.
"Air Slash isn't a cultivation technique; it uses raw, unprocessed Elental Qi instead of altering physics, so it's easy to learn." He smiled, "Most lower-mortal-grade attacks are like that. Watch."
Kaze flicked his index twice at the cave's wall and warping space cut into the wall in the shape of a heart, making Kiera turn bright red to the tip of her ears and turn away.
The emperor chuckled, satisfied to rile her up, which only made her huff and pout.
"Anyway, the Qi from your slash runs counterclockwise due to striking from your right hand." He continued.
"Since normal ridians accept Elental Qi from that rotational pattern, I can take it and absorb it directly, as it's raw unprocessed Qi.
However, if you used your left hand and the two opposing rotations t—"
Kaze flicked both of his fingers at each other. A small yet significant invisible force hit the pink-haired woman, blowing hair into her eyes and leaving her bewildered. "W-What the hell…."
"—they crash into each other. If that happens in your ridians, they can explode." He concluded with a devilish smile.
Kiera's eyes trembled in horror. "Woah, don't tell —"
"Your body can reverse the follow of Qi, which ans you can reduce inefficiency and recycle Elental Qi attacks like a non-stop rechargeable battery." Kaze confird.
"You could prove more formidable on this Qi-deprived plane than anyone else because there are a limited number of techniques people can use before they run out of Qi. However—"
She dry-swallowed anxiously, understanding the natural implication.
"—If you do it incorrectly, you'll die. Since you're naturally talented, you'll find yourself doing it, get overconfident, and your body will explode."
Kiera's eyes trembled in horror. "T-Then how do we train this?"
"I'm not sure." Kaze replied honestly, "It'll have to be trial and error—"
"Woah-woah-woah! Hold up!" She cried, "Trial and error? You can't be serious."
"I am. It's dangerous, but I can heal you." He confird seriously, "You've seen that, yes?"
"Yeah, I get that." Kiera confird, "But you're saying I'll constantly be on the verge of death… right?"
Kaze sighed with a sympathetic expression. "Would you rather it randomly occur when soone can't heal you?
One mistake is permanent and unfixable. If you survive, you'll be unable to cultivate for the rest of your miserable, pain-stricken life."
He could heal her with Paradox of Healing, an ancient technique, but she shouldn't rely upon sothing so absurd.
Kiera shook with fear. "I… this fucking sucks. Everything about it."
Kaze shook his head in dissent. "Yes, your body will rip apart more than a few tis, but your cultivation will skyrocket, and your power will multiply exponentially.
In all ways, what you go through will be a blessing beyond your wildest imaginations."
She stared at him with a pained expression before turning away. "Fine, whatever. Let's just get it over with.
But if I find you in the Underground Bizarre trading Skye for torture services, I swear to god I'll spend every waking mont planning your assassination."
"That's the spirit." The emperor laughed in amusent, "I only engage in BDSM if it's requested of , and I never pay money for sex.
It was bad enough I was forced to accept it in exchange for wealth and power, but that was both practical and necessary."
Kiera turned to him with a sassy expression before sitting in the lotus position. "Let's get on with it. I have pain free life to live after this."
Kaze closed his eyes in slight pain. "Okay, I'll start forcing raw Qi to follow over your body today.
Your goal today and tomorrow is to adjust your cultivation technique to accept it."
Her eyes widened with surprise. "So we're not doing that exploding thing?"
"No, but you won't feel grateful we aren't. Now let's get started; start cultivating." He replied seriously.
She shivered and closed her eyes, and began cultivating.
Kaze took a deep breath. Then he waved his hand once.
"GaaaaaahhhhhhhhHHHH!" Keira scread in extraordinary pain as the increased Qi stretched her ridians and forced Qi to flow unnaturally, leading to her feeling sick.
"Do you need a small break?" He asked calmly.
"Not a chance, chief." She replied bruskly, "I'm gonna earn that outfit, god damn it!
I demand a t-shirt like that, even if you have to give that one on your chest!"
"As you wish." The emperor grinned, waving his hand again.
Kiera scread in pain again but didn't give up. The training lasted three hours before he gave her her twelfth break, and she crashed to the ground, falling unconscious.
"Truly indomitable." Kaze smiled, looking at her sleeping body, "It's remarkable how so people can be so strong yet equally fragile."
The emperor gently picked up her body and walked through a series of spatial rifts until he reached her room.
After gently placing her on the bed, he gave her a lonely smile, rembering a past relationship.
"I can't protect anyone from fate." Kaze said softly, opening another spatial rift, "But I will train you to be strong enough to stand against it, and make it bend to your will."
He walked through it, leaving the cute, irrepressible force of nature to sleep peacefully.
![[Nightmare] cover](/images/Nightmare.jpg)
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