Leonel cleared his throat, trying to gloss over the awkward gaffe.

"It's nice that you're not a bachelor, having someone by your side in your old age is good."

"Are you calling me old, brat?"

Leonel smiled. "I heard for auntie that you're not supposed to be in the Void Palace at all, how'd you pull it off?"

Montez seemed gratified for a moment that Leonel was calling his wife auntie. But, hearing his question, he snorted.

"Morales men do as they please, as if they can stop me from visiting my wife and nephew if I want."

"Your wife doesn't seem to want you to visit, though."

Montez seemed to blush for a moment, but he quickly recovered.

"What do you know?! That woman told me not to appear before her again until I decided to put a baby inside her, she's crazy!"

Leonel sputtered, rolling his lips over each other to stop himself from laughing any harder. He realized that finding his uncle's weakness was the same as finding his father's weakness. Velasco was lucky that Leonel hadn't known his mother for most of his life, but now that he did, he wouldn't let that old man off next time he saw him.

"Then just put a baby in her, don't tell me you're impotent, unc?"

Montez's expression darkened. "Who's impotent?! My vitality could run circles around yours, you're lucky I'm a married man or else I'd take you to the closest brothel and bury you!"

Leonel laughed so hard his vision blurred. The role models in his family seemed to really be top notch. It was no wonder their wives had such a tight leash on him. Luckily, he was a much better man and hadn't stumbled into these degenerate ways.

Montez shook his head.

"You did a good job distracting me, but you're not getting out of this one."

Montez snapped his fingers and Leonel's teleportation attempt shattered, leaving his face sunken.

"How'd you find out?" Leonel practically pouted.

"You think that you hide anything from me within my absolute domain? You'd better forget about running away. You're going to sit here until I'm satisfied, and you're going to continue coming here as well, or else I won't mind spanking you in front of your little girlfriend."

Leonel sighed and shook his head. "What is the point of all of this? If you're really capable, go and take your rage out on my that old man, why are you torturing me?"

SNAP!

Leonel winced, rubbing his forehead.

Montez had moved faster than he could track, flicking his forehead so hard he was almost certain that a lump would form if not for his Starry Tailed Fox Lineage Factor.

"Oh? That's not a bad bloodline, surprising for that trash family. I bet it still hurts, though. There's more where that came from too if you keep wagging your tongue."

Leonel rubbed his forehead, realizing that he wasn't going to get out of this.

How annoying. He didn't have a single artistic bone in his body, how was he supposed to do this, exactly? And how was this going to be helpful?

Painting and calligraphy wouldn't be hard. Leonel was fairly certain that he could copy perfectly. However, he had a feeling that his uncle wanted him to do much more than just copy.

"You've almost reached full mastery of your—."

"Wait! I don't want to hear about future and current Spear Forces, I want to comprehend them all on my own."

Hearing this, Montez's expression flickered, his brow furrowing before loosening. Then, he laughed, his booming voice almost shattering the protective sheen around Aina and nearly making Leonel's ears bleed.

"Fine. You've almost reached full mastery of your Fifth Dimensional Spear Force, how would you describe it?"

"Controlled range."

Montez blinked. "I've never heard it summed up in two words before, but this is probably the most correct explanation I've ever heard at the same time.

"The spear is not just about being able to kill enemies from a larger range. It is the King of the Battlefield, a General's weapon, because it represents not elegance, not fancy tricks, not flare, but rather a dominion.

"Within the range of a spear, nothing should be able to enter without dying, and nothing should be able to get close without your permission.C0pyright © 2024 Nôv)(elDrama.Org.

"That "controlled range", is your Spear Domain. But, I can see at a glance that your control is lacking. You have no discipline and no method of honing it."

Leonel shook his head. Him? Lacking control? That was probably the one thing he had in spades, he didn't understand or agree with this conclusion at all.

Someone else might eat up the words someone so much stronger than they were saying, but Leonel was known for his stubbornness and he didn't like accepting things he couldn't under the purpose of. He had even spent so long in the Four Seasons Realm all because he couldn't understand why the Heavenly Body Realm had to come next, and only barely accepted it and broke through after Wise Star Order explained it to him.

Quite simply put, he would need more than this.

Plus, didn't his uncle just say the spear didn't have any elegance, fancy tricks or flare? What was poetry, music and painting if not exactly those three things? He was already contradicting himself.

Montez sighed.

"A man needs to have a hard exterior, but his heart must be boundless. The spear is just the same. It is the weapon of a man willing to place everything on his shoulders, but the root of that is just as important as its outcome, the method by which you go about it is maybe even more important.

"Simplicity itself isn't beautiful. It's simplicity that has roots in complexity that is beautiful.

"If I describe my emotions to you, I can easily say: I am angry. That is simple, that will get the point across, but it lacks any sort of beauty. However, if I say…"

Montez's palm flipped over, revealing a calligraphy pen.

He unfurled a sheet of paper, his demeanor shifting and a mark of dignity appearing between his brows.

His wrist flexed, his pen racing across the paper.

"Thunder claps to the beating of my heart. The world remains ignorant to my thoughts."

Leonel squinted, the forceful strokes making his eyes sting.

"Two simple phrases, barely five times the number of words, but the depth is infinitely greater.

"At the same time…"

Montez's arm shot forward, his pen stopping a mere tenth of a centimeter from Leonel's brows.

Leonel's hair blew back, a bead of sweat falling down his forehead and dripping onto the tip of the pen.

"…The strength beyond the strike gains the same profoundness."