Henry had a blindfold on as he dodged Zi’s strikes with a blade. Six months later, they decided to make this exercise more interesting. Henry would dodge Zi’s sword strikes until she drew blood. The record so far was fifteen minutes. He thought she was taking it easy on him, but the purple-haired maid assured him he was progressing that quickly.
His ki sense had merged with his precognition, allowing Henry to see a golden duplicate of where Zi would be. He had discussed his precognition with the girls, and they theorized that this was just another quirk of his cultivation. Even though he had Goldy’s cultivation method, it was adjusting to Henry’s combat style. This was not so unheard of, but his cultivation seemed very different from Goldy’s.
He detected Zi’s intent and the possibility of her attacks, which left a golden shimmering afterimage.
A slash aimed for his head as Henry did a backflip, narrowly avoiding it. Zi had caught on to his tricks and was now throwing multiple slashes, kicks, and punches to overload his abilities. Henry’s concentration was limited, so if she kept going, he would eventually slip up, and she would cut him.
He solved this problem by sidestepping a kick, grabbing her by the waist, and proceeding to tickle her. Zi was very ticklish.
“Uncle, uncle, I give up, master; relent, or I will explode,” Zi said while gasping for air.
“Outstanding master, but please refrain from tickling your opponents in the future. You may take your blindfold off.”
“Thanks, Zi, it’s cause I had a good teacher,” he said, bowing deeply to her. He ensured it was from the waist, with one hand in a fist and his other open, just like Lan had taught him.
Appearances were everything, so he had to be perfect, just like a true son of a noble house.
****
“That was a good warm-up, young master. Now that you are limber, we will repeat the forms. Fifteen minutes should be enough. On my count, the timer will begin.”
Lu stretched, and Henry could not help but ogle her. He had been living with her for six months, but the novelty had not worn off yet. She had been stern with their schedules as well as curfew. She was like a super sexy, strict older sister, keeping everyone in line.
“This young master would be grateful if senior would educate me in the noble art of beating the shit out of each other.”
“That was close, young master; gotta mind your language at the end there,” Lan said, giving him double thumbs-ups.
Henry had imparted the better aspects of his world to the girls, and they loved his colorful cursing and use of thumbs-ups.
“We will restrict our cultivation and focus on the pure forms. Now, let us begin.”
The two combatants bowed to each other before charging. Henry threw two quick jabs, which Lan countered with a leg sweep. He grabbed her by the back of the head and jumped into a flying knee to the chin. She ate the knee and hit him across the face with an elbow, sending him spinning. Even with her cultivation sealed, Lan still hit like a truck. Picking himself up, Henry dashed in a zigzag pattern, trying to find an opening.
“That is right, young master. Always be on the attack, always press the issue, and never remain still,” Lan said as she charged at him.
She kicked Henry’s kneecap just as he was about to find his footing for a punch. He had expected this and dropped into a roll that put him to her side. Leaping up, he punched her in the liver and followed it up with a kick to her head. The liver blow landed, but the kick did not. Lan winced and dropped back, circling him like a jungle cat.
“Come now, master. Is this the best you've got? Six months of training, and this is all you can do. Is it because I am a woman? A big, tough man can’t hit a little girl?”
She darted in and struck Henry in his elbow and below his armpit. It hurt like hell, but she had left her chin open when she over-extended. Henry rotated his hips and threw a blindingly fast left hook. He felt her head rock back, but what should have been a knockout blow only staggered her.
“I’d never hit a girl, but you, Lu, are an old-ass lady, so I have no issues with hitting you.”
He dove on her while she regained her focus; grabbing one arm, he leveraged his superior weight and threw her over his shoulder. Mounting her, he rained down punches. She managed to entangle one of his arms and shifted her position into an arm bar. Henry knew this trick, and he lifted her into the air before slamming her hard down into the ground.
She let go of his arm and popped right back up.
“Godamn it, Lu, how are you so fucking tough,” Henry said, frustration lacing his words.
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“Nutrious food, daily training, and superior genetics, young master.”
Ding Ding.
“That's time, young master. As always, from our sparring, my notes are that you need to be more aggressive and vicious. You still lack that killer instinct. I know it is just training, but in a real fight, you must be willing to kill.”
“I know, I know, kill or be killed; why is this world so bloodthirsty?”
“If you don’t get them, young master, I assure you they will get you.”
****
“Okay, young master, you know the drill: The first one to paralyze the other fully wins,” Fen said, sounding too chipper.
“And don’t be a naughty boy like you were during our first lesson; the mistress is watching.”
“It was an accident, I swear,” Henry said apologetically.
This was his favorite part of training during these past six months. It felt like he was playing adult tag with Fen but with possible life-threatening outcomes. His ki control had gotten a lot better.
Gram Gram had procured some of the gold he had won from the Dragon’s Horde back from Yinglong for Henry. Every day, three gold coins would appear on his nightstand, and that was what he had to work with for the rest of the day. Having the barest dredges of ki had forced him to use it wisely and sparingly.
The ki disruption training helped him use the faintest trickle of ki when attacking. It also helped him bring the ki to different parts of his body much faster. The training had evolved into using every body part, not just his finger. Henry had devised this method, and Fen talked about it jubilantly for a whole week.
“Fifteen minutes on the clock, fighters, you may begin,” Lu said with a pocket watch in her hand.
Different from the spar with Lu, Henry did not immediately rush in. This was a game of quick reactions and even faster movements. Fen’s small stature made it hard for Henry to score a clean hit without sacrificing a limb. The two circled each other, looking for an opening. He was never patient, and she knew this.
He dove in with jabs, letting ki trickle into his hands, aiming for a spot in her shoulder. He knew that hitting this spot would paralyze her left leg. Fen ducked under and stuck three points on his arm with lightning precision. Henry lost vision in his right eye.
“You telegraph your movements too much, master; remember, you must be quick and precise but also sneaky.”
Henry used her little monologue to infuse Ki into a kick that hit her right on her upper thigh. Fen’s right arm locked up.
“Outstanding master, you took advantage of my lapse in judgment,” Fen congratulated him as she attacked again.
The two of them were a blur of motion. Before long, they were both limping around with multiple body parts frozen.
Henry was blind in one eye, could not hear or speak, and his left arm and right leg were completely paralyzed.
Fen was not better off. She was entirely blind, and both her arms were hanging uselessly at her side.
“You’ve gotten so much better, master. If your opponent were not me or one of my sisters, they would be in a full-on panic now.”
Henry had no idea what she had said. He could still sense her ki form, though with his battle precognition. He tried to dash in as best as he could and threw a hand at where he thought a ki point was.
She hit him four times across his chest, and Henry locked up entirely, falling to the ground. With a flex of her ki, Fen unblocked all her blocked points. She walked over to him, and with a series of strikes across multiple points, Henry was right back to normal.
Offering him her hand, Fen pulled her up off the ground.
“You are scary as shit Fen; I feel more and more inadequate every time we fight.”
“Hundred of years of practice, young master will do that; all things considered, you are a star pupil for having only been at this for six months.”
Henry was drenched in sweat; even though this was routine for him at this point, it didn't make it any easier. Hell, some girls he felt went out of their way to push him to the breaking point.
****
“Come on, master, little children could rep more weight than you,” Hong screamed into his ear. She spotted him as he pushed six hundred pounds of metal on the bench press.
She hasn’t taught him a damn thing these last six months. Mainly, she stood there in her skin-tight body suit and screamed at Henry to push more weight. To lift until failure and to look super sexy and distracting. Lifting to failure was easier said than done with Gram Gram's equipment. The weights were enchanted to heal all Henry's muscle tears almost immediately. After six months of eating well and lifting borderline insane amounts of weight daily, Henry was in the best shape of his two lives combined. He had an eight-pack and felt monstrously strong even before using his ki.
Henry appreciated the redhead's enthusiasm; her general demeanor was infectious. It honestly made what he had to do after her sessions much more palatable.
Out of all the sessions that he had with the girls, he dreaded the lesions with Lan the most.
Lan tried, she really did, to make it seem much more interesting than it was, but Henry had found out quickly that he could not retain any of the information that she tried to shove in his head.
Henry begged her to write him a book.
She wrote him a literal tome, and with much pleading, she managed to shrink it to a little pocket-sized notebook. The text was so small that Henry had asked for a magnifying glass to read it. The girls made him a stupid-looking pair of glasses that made him look like a juiced-up tax accountant whenever he put it on.
After the cram session, Henry would barely be able to stay awake. If not for the monstrous dinner that Lu always whipped up, he would have gone straight to bed.
They had grilled meats and roast vegetables tonight, Henry’s favorite meal as a going-away celebration.
Tomorrow, the locks would be released, and Henry would be sent back to the mortal world armed with enough skills not to get murdered by all the cultivators who would be gunning for the Scion of the North.