BXBX NOVEL Chapter 162 161: Control
Recalling last night, I was skeptical as to whether her \'training\' was an excuse to be alone together or if she really had an idea in mind to train.
However, taking in the serious appearance of the Vampire sitting before me, I chased those thoughts from my mind, focusing my attention entirely on her pale features.
Taking a deep breath, Leone stared me in the eyes and started speaking, her voice low.
"I came across a method to help practice mana control, but it requires two people with not only opposite elements, but also incredible control on their own. I\'ve hit a block in my training, and I think the next best thing for me to do is to fine tune my control as much as I possibly can. Will you help me?"
Pursing my lips, I asked "What exactly is it? And if you need my water mana, this won\'t really work; my mana\'s fused together almost completely, and it takes a lot of effort to separate them inside my body now..."
Shaking her head, Leone\'s crimson eyes flared, and she said "Your ice will be fine; after all, my fire isn\'t exactly... normal anymore. Now, as for the method itself, it\'s rather... unique..."
Seeing her cheeks redden slightly, I narrowed my eyes and gestured for her to continue.
"Well... you see, I... we need to entwine our opposite mana and create a circuit between us, where we revolve the mana between each other. This not only improves our control, since we\'ll be constantly managing the movement of our mana streams, but it can also... temper our mana, since they\'ll be constantly beside a stream of mana that they are the opposite of..."
This was sounding a whole lot like-
"It\'s a technique from the Tian Dynasty, and if I recall correctly, its name is... Dual... Dual Cultivation? Something odd like that..."
Oh for the love of...
Sighing slightly, I stared at her before asking "Where\'d you find this again? What book?"
Frowning, Leone stroked her chin as she stared off to the side, her brow scrunched as she tried to recall where.
Bringing her fist down onto her palm, she said "I found it in Mom\'s personal library; she told me it was an effective way to strengthen yourself!"
Giving her a disbelieving stare, I wondered if my own mind was tainted from my last life or if it was just different here.
Dual Cultivation...
That oh so lauded way of increasing ones strenght by delving into carnal pleasure with someone of the opposite sex or with an opposite element; usually yin and yang, but there were a few like Leone and I, using fire and water or other opposites to practice.
A good chunk of any \'Dual Cultivation\' was done via sex, but there were those rare cases where it was just a way to... temper your energy by exposing it to its opposite; yin to yang, water to fire, earth to lightning...
Which made me wonder how deeply Leone had read that book...
Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose before giving her a smile.
Either way, this would be great training; be it the pure kind of Dual Cultivation, or the one that I was thinking of...
"Alright! Here, we put our hands together like this... then we need to..."
Leone placed her palms against mine and left her fingers sprawled out, before she said "Well, we need to start small, because this could be... dangerous. After all, we\'re injecting mana into the others body, and since we\'re opposites, we need to be really careful..."
Nodding, I recalled my experience with rampant mana inside my pathways, making me shiver slightly.
Unless we dumped a lot of mana into one another we wouldn\'t die, but I can only imagine the pain that we might feel should we fail.
"I\'ll start by pushing enough mana for a basic sphere circle into your body, and you need to attach an equal amount of mana onto that strand, revolve it around your pathways, and send it back to me, where I\'ll do the same thing. Since we\'re just starting off, I\'ll keep the amount the same, but in the future, we\'ll add more mana the further along we go. Okay?"
"Yeah... let\'s get started."
Closing my eyes, I felt my right palm warm up as Leone circulated her mana, only to groan slightly as that warmth entered my body.
It very quickly turned from a warmth to a searing heat, and I grit my teeth as it made it\'s way towards my core.
Before it could enter, I mirrored the droplet of searing lava-like mana and coated it with my glacial ice, instantly noticing the heat dissipating.
Making sure my ice didn\'t encapsulate and douse the fire mana, I carefully guided it through my body before pushing it towards my right palm, where I sent it into Leone\'s body.
The Vampire gasped as she felt my frozen mana enter her, and I waited for it to come back to my right palm.
We sat there for who knows how long alternating control of that droplet, and after a few dozen rotations Leone stopped, melting my mana inside her body.
Releasing my palm, she stared at me for a few moments, her lips pursed as she said "I can\'t really tell a difference... but that was just a small amount of mana..."
Nodding, I suggested "We should double the amount, before adding a droplet each rotation, stopping when it reaches... hmm... I think around triple the cost for a bullet spell?"
"Alright... here, I\'ll start again..."
Rejoining our hands together, I accepted her mana and matched it, before adding an extra drop of my own mana to it.
Pushing it into her right palm, I heard her gasp again, before it eventually returned to my right palm.
The searing heat was worse than before, but it was swiftly countered by my ice, leaving me feeling comfortable again.
We continued on until we had the designated amount which was warm for me and cool for Leone, so not unbearable, just... weird.
With that spells worth of mana alternating between us, I found that it was growing easier to guide this blob of unfamiliar, mixed mana around my body, and when we finished we both stared at the other, curious frowns on our faces.
Getting up, I moved a few steps away and traced out the runes needed for an ice bullet, noticing instantly how it was just a few milliseconds quicker to activate than before.
Of course, that could be my mind playing tricks on me, but considering the ease at which I could activate spell after spell, I was confident that this was a fruitful gain on my end.
As for Leone...
Still sitting on the ground where we \'Dual Cultivated\', the Vampire was deathly silent, her body completely still.
However, after a few moments her mana flared, and I shuddered at the raw amount pouring from her body.
My eyes widened as I \'saw\' the red shimmer around her pale skin, and for a moment it felt like a raging inferno sat before.
Very quickly that feeling melted away, and Leone brought her mana under control, her eyes opening.
Staring down at her hands, she grinned as she swiftly traced a few runes in the air, and my eyes widened even more as I saw what appeared.
What should have been a simple, small sphere of fire was now instead a roaring sun, the heat battering the space around us.
Feeling a few hairs on my arms singe from the blaze before me, I coated my body in a thin sheen of ice, instantly sighing in relief at the now all to familiar cold of my mana.
Clenching her fist, Leone snuffed out her giant ball of flames, turning our courtyard back into a dim, cool place.
Her grin was still wide, and I swear I saw a hint of madness in those crimson orbs of hers.
However, a moment later Jahi and Anput burst from the house, looking around in worry.
"What the hell was that?!"
Hearing Jahi\'s sharp tone, Leone\'s grin faded, and she gave the Demoness a weak smile as she said "S-Sorry... that was me..."
The Demoness and Jackalkin stared at the Vampire in surprise, and Jahi eventually turned to me, her amethyst eyes unbelieving.
Giving her a nod, I said "Leone managed to control more of her mana, and well... yeah."
The two women stared at Leone with wide eyes, before Jahi simply shook her head and turned around, muttering "Not dealing with this. Nope. Nuh-uh..."
Anput just nodded, following behind Jahi as she went back inside.
Leone was silent, a pout on her face before she shuffled over to me.
Rolling my eyes, I gently stroked the back of her head and brought her face down to my chest, comforting her.
We stood like that for a few moments before she murmured "There... was another part of that book..."
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I\'ll get that lemon out either later tonight or tomorrow...
And for those wanting more group play, I\'ll be doing that in ten-ish chapters or so, after another set of normal chapters, so stay tuned~
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