Chapter 313 - Apprentice (2/2)
To her surprise, she found Nik already in front of her. His rather large physique covering her's while his thick index fell on her lips. It was rough and warm.
”Hush, now. Do you want to wake up the entire dorm and create a misunderstanding that would incite public mocking?”
Nik smiled and took a step back.
”I will train you. Keep your money to yourself. Keep other forms of compensation to yourself. And get out. I will come out in a few minutes. I need to freshen up and if you are still outside, I will understand that the entire city is really mistaken about who the real Shen Xiu is.”
***
”And the entire city is officially mistaken!”
Nik proclaimed softly as he walked out of his room and matched Shen Xiu's gaze. His words instantly pulled an uncharacteristically annoyed look from Shen Xiu before she turned around and made her way down the stairs. Nik followed her down until they reached the left training field. It was pretty dark outside and it would have been quite hard for the ordinary citizens to view the surroundings if it hadn't been for the lamps erected on the edges of the pavement.
Nik and Shen Xiu soon reached the grounds where Nik instructed her on the entirety of the basic technique. In fact, he performed the routine fluently and slowly without pausing so that Shen Xiu could observe the entirety of the technique. It took around 20 minutes this time around and Shen Xiu fell on her knees in five minutes' time as she felt short on oxygen while she took deep and continuous breaths.
”What *haah* kind of *huff* technique is this?”
Shen Xiu inquired. Her body has been continuously nourished by potent spiritual energy since her birth but even then, her physique seemed to fall short when compared to Nik's. It was absolutely shocking!
Honestly, Nik did not feel that much surprised. Since he had gained the affinity with the spirit energy, he let the soothing energy flood his body. His current pool of energy placed him in between the spiritual rank of 19 or 20. But much to his surprise, even when he deemed the spirit energy of higher quality, the Hamon energy from the previous travel had exponential reinforcement effects to the body. That is to say, the higher quality spirit energy still couldn't cover the benefits of lower quality specialized Hamon energy.
”This is a good technique. That's the only thing you should know. Your muscles will feel sore momentarily, so you should lie down.”
”And muddy my clothes and hair? No thanks.”
Shen Xiu scoffed as Nik sighed and crouched next to her. During his break, Nik had already fused another two of his skills with the use of his [Skill Palace].
He could manipulate the senses of his partners due to [Sense Manipulation] and could tweak the physical sensitivity of their body due to [Mirage's Touch], creating a skill that could manipulate the both of them. Since the two were innate skills, the fused skill turned out to be an innate one.
[Mirage Manipulation:
It allows the user to manipulate the senses and the sensitivity of the target. This skill requires quite a lot of practice and even the slightest slip up could endanger the life of the target. Higher the [VIT] of the target, lower the effects. Higher the [ENG] of the host, greater the effect.]
Nik utilized his technique and felt his mind connecting to Shen Xiu's. He could feel the physical 'strain' her body was feeling. Since he had already played with this technique, it did not take long for Nik to perceive the 'strain' as a sense of lethargy. Since Nik only had a rudimentary control over the technique, he had to follow the process and manipulate the senses of the target based on his own senses as the baseline. Nik reckoned that if his understanding of the skill grew greater, he could achieve the same effect with a snap.
”Huh?”
Shen Xiu exclaimed as a sense of drowsiness struck her, making her elbows unable to support her torso, making her upper body dive down and hit the ground if not for the root cause of the incident extending his arm to catch her.
”There you go!”
Nik had enough experience in petting Nezuko that he could instantly pull the cross-legged position and position the back of the head of the target on his lap.
”What do you think you are doing?!”
Shen Xiu hissed as Nik thought internally,
”Taking advantage of you...”
”What?!”
Shen Xiu's eyes widened in disbelief! How can someone be so shameless?!
In fact, Nik was even more surprised.
”Did I just say that out loud?”
”Yes! Let me go, now! You pervert!”
With a sigh, Nik raised his palm and extended it towards Shen Xiu's face. Her face paled as a few scenes entered her mind involuntarily. She closed her eyes and turned her head away while she waited for the inevitable to happen. Instead, what she felt was a large hand soothingly stroking the top of her head.
”Like I said. If you try this technique further, your muscles will injure. You don't want to rush into this. Since you are older than the kids I taught yesterday, your muscles are more rigid.
Just enjoy the rest until you have the chance.”
Nik's voice entered Shen Xiu's ears as her eyes snapped open and she turned her head back to match Nik's gaze. Her expression was filled with astonishment but Nik could only frown as he saw her.
”Why are you... crying?”
***
The next hour, Shen Xiu slept on Nik's lap soundly while Nik spread his pheromones to clear the scene. It was only after making sure that there wasn't anybody near them did Nik close his eyes and started to meditate on the [Tome of Battle]. Even though he had reached the heights in martial arts that would have been hard for him to achieve in such a short time, Nik understood from the contents that he had barely scratched the surface of the depths of the martial arts. Otherwise, the [Tome of Battle] wouldn't have been categorized as a masterpiece handwritten by the Supreme Seraphim and his loyal disciples.