The emperor and the shadow cat stared at each other. One stood on the water, bobbing up and down in the same location, the other on dry ground.
Evalyn and Kiera stared at the two with trembling eyes.
"My apologies; I'm teaching my student the importance of not proking others." Kaze said solemnly, "Her language is on track to get her killed, so I'm demonstrating the consequence of speaking frivously."
He closed his eyes and nodded slowly before making eye contact again. His humility humbled Evalyn, who couldn't believe what she had witnessed.
"Understood." Crux replied calmly, looking at Keira, who she remembered through scent alone.
Kiera shuttered when the divine beast looked at her. However, she stood tall with a quiet expression.
"My actions were purely reflexive and warning you against repeating your actions is pointless." The shadow cat argued, "So unless you need something, I'd like to continue."
Kaze chuckled and gave her a slight smile for her rare practicality. "I'm giving you a healing technique to heal Evalyn after training. So don't attack me this time."
Her eyes widened in shock. "H-Healing technique? How do you have one when they're strictly monopolized by the medical millennial families, factions, and schools?"
"I got this one during this apocalypse during the second phase." He smiled, "Hold still."
She trembled slightly in excitement, anxiety, and desperation as he appeared next to her and touched her forehead.
A profound blueprint imprinted itself onto her brain, expanding her mind significantly and leaving her in a state of disbelief.
"You now have free reign to push training as far as Evalyn wants." Kaze said sternly, "However, don't push things beyond what's helpful, or hurt her to train yourself. Am I clear?"
The royal divine beast felt an icy chill crawl down her spine. She realized that Kaze had never threatened her until now, and it shocked her system. "Understood."
Kaze turned to Evalyn and reached out his hand. Her body radiated with a familiar, warm, golden light.
It instantly healed all of her wounds and staved off the early symptoms of hypothermia, stopping her shaking before the cold water on her returned.
Evalyn didn't feel the cold, however. She only had hypothermia because she spent most of the last two days in arctic waters.
He waved his hand again, and a blast of heat crashed into her, causing her to stumble backward.
However, the blonde stumbled back reflexively, freezing the water to retain her balance. The effortlessness left perplexed looks on her and Kiera's faces.
The emperor gave the blonde a mocking smile for being surprised.
"Thank you." Evalyn said straightly with a grateful nod.
"Don't thank me." Kaze grinned, "Healing you means you can go through another round before tapping out."
She made eye contact and slowly nodded again, grateful she could train more. "Thank you."
He frowned with a sad look in his eyes for a split second before he put a slight smile on his face.
"You're welcome." Kaze replied, then nudged his head in Kiera's direction.
Evalyn turned to the mind-haired woman who shuttered, fearful of the notorious blonde she saw at the party. "Who's she?"
"Kiera Snow, an impressively intelligent, overly sensitive woman with immense potential, a poisonous tongue, and anxiety issues." He explained straightly.
"Kiera has a rare physique that will kill her if I don't train her. I request you protect her and be kind despite her charming yet derisive behavior and obnoxious manner of speech.
If you haven't met such a person, you should know they're quite tiresome." He added with a charming smile.
"Yes, I'm well accustomed to that type of person." The blonde replied with a mocking smile, breaking out of her shell, "Why are you coddling someone? That's unlike you."
"There's no choice." Kaze replied straightly, "Her type has indomitable mindsets for personal issues.
However, they're obnoxiously socially fragile and break from minor social rejection.
Her training will be intricate and deadly; we can't have her focusing on anything else."
The blonde's eyes widened in slight fear, examining Kiera's Qi flow.
She saw that the pink-haired woman had a sky technique and fully opened meridians, proving that she had the technique before joining Immortal Skye.
Evalyn looked at Kiera with a complex expression. "Consider it done. Is there anything else?"
"Yes." He smiled, "Prepare yourself. You're demonstrating the difference between you and the rest so that woman gets the message to be kind. So bring your best."
She dry-swallowed nervously and nodded. "What am I doing?"
"Behind that wall is a training ground." Kaze smiled, "You'll use everything you have to attack Crux.
If you hit her once in the next three days, I'll give you a sacred-grade movement technique called Sacred Snowdrift."
Evalyn's heart beat violently. The name triggered a fierce, emotional reaction.
Kaze turned to the perplexed shadow cat, still in disbelief that she had just gotten a healing technique.
After receiving two sacred techniques and a healing technique, she truly understood the power differential between them.
"Crux. Evalyn will use every technique in your arsenal to land an attack on you over the next three days." He announced, "You can have four clothing items if you can avoid getting hit."
Crux's eyes lit up like a firework show momentarily before her eyes lost vitality.
She gave him a wry smile, embarrassed that she, a royal cultivator, was motivated by Earthian garments.
"Very well, lead me to a location you won't miss." The can woman nodded.
"Okay, follow me." He nodded, walking on water to the other side, "Kiera, you're with me. Evalyn, follow Crux."
Kiera nodded nervously, trembling slightly. "O-Okay."
She didn't understand what was going on. However, she watched Kaze teleport to the woman in the frog hoodie, and the cute woman released an attack that split major boulders in half, almost killing Evalyn.
Kaze wasn't joking when he said that she'd get killed by someone if she made the wrong move. She didn't even stand a chance; their power difference was far too vast.
Kiera wanted to leave because the people she was near were dangerous. However, her curiosity pushed her forward, and she ran to the other side of the lake.
"I only got within attacking distance of her, catching her off guard." The emperor said, "Yet that's all it took for her to use lethal force that could kill anyone else here.
One day that will be normal; that's why you need to become strong enough to survive that tongue of yours."
"There you go apocalypsing again." Kiera whispered nervously, "Is it because of cultivation?"
"Correct." He confirmed, "Soon, many individuals will be as strong as an armored military regiment. So they'll do what they want, regardless of how heinous."
The teen shuttered, walking up to the gate nervously. He put in the code, and a new area opened.
A ten-acre patch of land met everyone's gazes when they met up. He led them to a large meadow in the center, the size of a small city park.
"This is it. You can train in this ten-acre region; just don't touch the walls or the mansion. Otherwise, you have free reign." Kaze announced.
Evalyn and Crux nodded, staring each other down with serious expressions that sent waves of anxiety pulsing through Kiera's body.
"You don't have to hold back, Evalyn." He continued, "Crux is 213 years old.
She has more than a century of distinguished military experience, is a royal who hasn't lacked resources, and is a divine beast.
If you can kill her, she deserves to die. That isn't a joke; she'll kill herself if you defeat her in the next three days."
The emperor translated the message to the cat woman before teaching her some words.
"I-If you whole-de bak, I will keel you." Crux said slowly, trying to copy his words.
"I will try to kill you." Evalyn nodded.
"You. Impressive and marvelous." The cat woman laughed derisively.
"Okay, I'm taking Kiera to the corner." Kaze laughed, "You can start when the spatial barrier is erected."
He walked with the pink-haired woman over to a rock that was offensively close to the two, waved his hand, and a dome barrier encased the two.
"A-Are you sure we can sit here!?" Kiera cried, "We're like, uber close. Like, uber, uber, [fuck me, we're gonna die] level close. They're twenty feet away right—"
Before the woman could finish her statement, the area between the two competitors exploded violently, clouding the area in dust and sending rocks toward her.
However, to her bewilderment, they disappeared when they hit the barrier. Then—
BOOM! Boom, boom, rubble, rubble, boom! Boom! Boom, boom, rubble, boom!
The rocks that hit the barrier rained down from the sky, catching the blonde, who was recovering from getting by an invisible force, off guard.
Evalyn rolled out of the way and smacked a rock out of the air. It shattered on contact with her forearm but still hurt. "Gahhhhh!"
"What? Did you think she'd just stand around?" Kaze laughed, "She's treating you like a toddler, but that's
"W-What just—" Kiera couldn't see from the dust, but her eyes widened in shock when the dust cleared.
Whiiiiish, boom! Whiiiiish, craaaaaaack! Whiiish! Boom! whiiiish, craaack! whiiiiiiish! BOOM!
A hundred daggers floated in the air, shooting at Crux from every direction.
The black-haired beauty, whose's ears and tail were hidden by a cute, green frog hoodie, stood in one location, casually dodging attacks, destroying them with Qi, or bending their direction.
Her hoodie didn't even get water or ice on it. It was surreal.
Evalyn finally understood the vast power differential between them, completing the cycle.
Crux truly understood the power difference between her and Kaze, Evalyn understood the power difference between her and Crux, and Kiera knew the difference in power between her and Evalyn.
Each tier became abstract at each level, with Evalyn and Kiera being unable to comprehend Kaze's strength. However, like a ladder, as each level increased, the difference became clear.
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