When the next morning Leo arrived at the training grounds, it was filled with disciples of both sexes. It was crystal clear everyone came to meet the two beautiful future sect masters, but he couldn’t care less – there was limited time for Elsa to teach him the movement technique, thus ignoring all protests and curses he fought his way through the crowd.
Besides the two beauties in the center, there were no Core formation stage cultivators here, thus it wasn’t that hard for Leo to get to them. Surely he created quite a few ‘mortal enemies’ with this move, but he couldn’t care less.
“I’m sorry, junior brothers and sisters!” Elsa slightly bowed and said with the most beautiful smile in the world, “Unfortunately we’ll have to chat another time! Now, though, according to the sect master’s orders, I’ll have to guide this junior brother.”
Shouts ‘why him?’, ‘please guide me!’ and ‘I love you!’ filled the air, but Elsa apparently was used to such reaction and didn’t bat an eye.
She said, “Work hard and sooner or later you’ll all get a chance! Now please, I have to ask everyone to leave! Sect master’s orders ...”
Grumbling in dissatisfaction the crowd dispersed and formed a huge human circle around the training grounds. They stood far enough to not be able to hear anything, but most had an excellent vision and hoped they could read from Elsa’s cherry lips what she had to say to the hateful guy with the huge thing on his back.
Unfortunately a loud groan of disappointment echoed through the training grounds when both beauties wore a white veil, clearly prepared for such turn of events, and spoke softly enough only for each other and Leo to hear.
“It is unfortunate you are only at the Qi gathering stage, so you won’t be able to try out to not speak about succeeding in performing the ‘Angelic wind’ properly.” Elsa said with a tinge of regret in her voice, “Nevertheless, our Cloud family always keeps the promises we make, therefore I’ll do my best to teach you all I know about the technique.”
Leo seriously nodded while inwardly smirking at the girl’s act and continued to listen.
“The basic idea of the technique is to release concentrated amounts of Qi though your soles or rather – the spots where your feet touch the ground. In case of running, it’ll obviously be only the front part. You’re with me so far?” Elsa began the explanation, but the changes in Leo’s expression made her uncertain if the student even heard what she said, to not speak about understanding. Of course, she met hundreds, if not thousands of guys in her life who watched her move her mouth but never hear a world and apparently this one was one of those.
On the other hand Leo was completely shocked – this technique was clearly tailor made for him! Yes, the sect master of the Angelic Dawn mentioned he had to have the wind affinity, but there was a chance he could make it work with the cursed lightning, right?
“Sigh. When you have practiced it long enough and are proficient at this part, you can start using your elemental affinity to multiply the effect, in my case – the wind infused Qi provides me with incredible bursts of speed. In fact, since the wind is the fastest element, it is unlikely anyone could catch me given equal circumstances and cultivation level.” Elsa explained, “Alright, now some demonstration. Look!”
She dashed twenty yards away and returned almost in an instant. To the onlookers it seemed like a fairy teleported from one spot to another.
“This is, maybe, half of my speed.” She took off the veil and gifted Leo one last smile, “Practice hard and one day you might reach this speed!”
Then she turned towards Etessa and with intention to suggest to go and have breakfast in the city, when Leo said, “Interesting. I understand this is your secret technique, therefore didn’t take any writing utensils with me. But it should be fine if we drew in sand, right? Could you please map the Qi flow out for me? Look … let’s say this is a person … sorry, I’m not a painter … anyway … oh, right, and at which point do you think it’s the most effective to transform Qi according to your elemental affinity?”
To Leo these were only logical questions since he spent the last two months researching ways how to release Qi from the tips of his extremities. But to the two young ladies his reaction didn’t make any sense – didn’t this guy just spend few years in some barren land with no Qi? Where in the world all those smart words came from? And wasn’t he mesmerized by their beauty just a moment ago? What’s up with that?
Seeing the two didn’t have any reaction, Leo awkwardly scratched the back of his head and said, “I’m sorry, lady Elsa, but the sect master allowed you to teach me only for a day. I really, really would like to use every moment available, because, as you know, anything you say might save my life during the next expedition.”
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He could’ve said anything, but the wording Leo used instantly reminded both girls that no matter what others said or thought, this guy actually did save the lives of their mothers. Maybe he did it on accident or because of the sense of duty, but nevertheless – they both kind of owed him.
Suddenly Elsa realized that the feeling of something being wrong in the Spirit tower was not because there was something wrong with the guy. Exactly the opposite – even though he looked like a country bumpkin, he did try hard according to his own understanding! Both sect masters have clearly evaluated him wrong!
What followed shocked the thousands of the Sacred Order’s disciples who were gathered to feast their eyes upon the two beauties. For some reason they got all fired up and actually taught the stupid youth even though he frequently argued with them and allowed himself to disagree. They talked, laughed and gestured, but also practiced in all seriousness. Obviously the youth could not keep up with the two, but from what it looked like he didn’t behave like a complete retard.
In a matter of twenty or so breaths Leo became the most hated person in the history of the Sacred Order. Hundreds, if not thousands of male disciples were already making plans how to secretly assassinate him, while there were plentiful of females who did the same.
Trio continued to occupy the training grounds the whole day while the onlookers felt like loosing their sanity with every passing moment. The two ladies didn’t even get to have a lunch! Instead the hateful guy fished out a couple of water bottles from his jacket, passed them to quench the thirst and then continued to exploit the poor girls!
Actually everything this guy did was wrong! Even when the sun hid behind the treetops, he bowed to the ladies, obviously faking politeness, and then ran away, rudely leaving the two behind. From how lost both looked it was clear they were insulted by his behavior and there was no way the other disciples would let it slide.
Leo, as usual, didn’t care one bit for what other’s thought. He had to rush to meet Jack – they still had a plan to perfect.
On the other hand the minds of the two girls was a complete mess, but not because of what happened during the day, although it was kind of fun. When Leo thanked for the lesson and said goodbyes intending to leave, Elsa, blushed all over whispered that if he completed the next mission, she would fulfill his any wish. Her friend, Etessa, even though didn’t like it, actually knew that in her position she would’ve gladly done the same – to the both girls their mothers were the closest people in the world.
The problem was that Leo said … ‘can I ask for spirit stones?’!
To avoid crowds, Leo and Jack rushed to have a talk in one of Avila’s taverns, but apparently the two beautiful future sect masters also had this idea and the city center experienced an influx of thousands of the Sacred Order’s disciples. As the result the two youths were forced to return to the deserted sect, but fortunately it turned out to be more convenient.
Leo straight up refused the option of burning down the alchemy warehouse since the crazy sect master could decided to send them off without concocting new antidotes. In addition, arson seemed to be kind of dangerous and too high profile, thus he persuaded Jack he would only ‘take a look’.
Even though the warehouse in question was not the one where the sect kept its alchemy supplies, there were still a couple of guards at the door, thus Jack gave Leo a powder that could knock out a rank five water buffalo for at least twenty breaths. Obviously neither wanted to kill anyone thus such approach seemed to be the most reasonable.
It was already past midnight when Leo sneaked in the Alchemy division. Most disciples were still in the city, but those remaining were secretly having a drink while cursing Heavens for making them work night shift while this was the first time in months when something actually noteworthy happened. Leo’s private lesson was the most discussed topic and the youth, of course, the most hated person in the realm.
Leo didn’t pay much attention to the contents of the discussions though. While avoiding the scarce guard patrols, he found the target building according to Jack’s instructions and quickly scaled it from the backside, just the way Anna taught him a long time ago. Needless to say now that he had advanced to the Foundation establishment stage, he could almost directly jump on the roof of the one storey building, but to avoid any unnecessary commotion, he did it the ‘old fashioned’ way by stealthily climbing.
Afterwards he silently crouched over to the front where the guards sat, scattered the Jack’s powder above them and few moments later jumped down. The two slightly buzzed disciples guarding the door were already passed out and Leo quickly found the keys to unlock the door in the pocket of one of them.
Less than five breaths later he already locked the door behind him, put the key back and pulled the two guards in a sitting position as if they had been leaning against the door the whole time. It didn’t take long for him to return to his own room and he was absolutely certain that only an immortal or a lucky Nascent soul stage cultivator who happened to be at the warehouse could’ve caught him. He did everything swiftly, silently and without drawing any attention – exactly according to Anna’s teachings.
Before falling asleep he did reminisce a bit about her, compare his two teachers from today to the goddess and in the end fell asleep with a smile on his face. He knew he’ll be dreaming about his favorite exercise and the two junior sect masters will be particularly clean before the morning came.
Surprisingly during the next half month nothing out of the ordinary happened in the Sacred Order. No one even mentioned break-in and if not for Jack and his colleagues working overtime creating more antidotes and cleansing elixirs, Leo would’ve started suspecting he had taken the wrong wares. Of course, he would’ve loved to tell his best friend he kind of borrowed the goods, but there was the risk of Jack mentioning it to one of his sweethearts.
Of course, no one in the sect had a clue the higher-ups were thrown into disarray by a whole pile of wares disappearing without a trace. Moreover – the wares were necessary for the upcoming expedition, but the only ones who knew about it were only the closest circle and people the sect master fully trusted.
In the end it was decided to cut the planned duration of the expedition by half and reduce the amount of members by two thirds. In that way the Sacred Order was still able to prepare the necessary amount of supplies at the same time largely reducing the amount of luggage everyone was supposed to carry.