NOVEL NEXT V2CH-46-Punishment
(Raina POV)
Ignoring the little boy, I pulled my kit back toward the house to ensure she was alright.
That thought forced me to pause as I had to consider what I just thought Vale was. I mean, if I were to be a proper kitsune, then I would indeed call her such a thing, but the thing about that is that I have only become a kitsune recently, so it should not alter my thoughts that much.
The only way that would happen is if the materials used to change me into a kitsune were of a high enough quality to supersede any power that I had. However, according to Vale, the materials that she used were given to her by... Oh. Nevermind.
With that figured out and this entire train of thought only taking less than one microsecond, I moved on, pulling Vale into the house.
Once inside, I forced her to sit down on one of the couches that were now back since I had let the room return to normal.
I then used a vision technique designed to detect injuries caused by Qi and checked her body with it.
The moment I did, her whole body lit up in a bright white for me, signifying her whole body was injured.
I was certain this was not the case, though, so I sat down next to her on the couch and was about to try something else when Vale suddenly asked, "What are you doing?"
Looking up into her eyes from observing her body, I said, "Checking to make sure that you aren't hurt because, you know, last time you had an issue with something like this, it was your system almost shattering your soul."
After I finished saying this, she lowered her head and looked at the ground, letting me place my hands on her back.
As soon as my hands made contact, I sent some of my Qi through them and into Vale's body while trying to make it as gentle as I could.
When I did this, I noticed two reasons why my technique did not work almost immediately.
The first was the discovery that Vale was not exaggerating when she said that having over ten times as many meridians as a normal person greatly enhanced her passive absorption of Qi. It was to the point that if I did not know any better, I would have thought she was cultivating right now.
The second was that her body was nearly filled to the brim with stationery Qi that was attached to every part of it. This is not like the Qi from her body tempering stage technique or residual Qi with impurities in it, but actual pure Qi that was just sitting there, not moving, and no matter how much I prodded it, it would not move either.
There were also no injuries yet, so I continued deeper and found two more reasons as to why the previous technique did not work.
The least of the two was how every part of her body was not only attuned to the spiritual world around her but also acted as the world's best and most powerful Qi and law power gathering formation that I have ever seen. This was then piled on top of her natural affinity as a kitsune.
The worst part of everything I have found thus far, though, was the four active cores all acting in conjunction and completely open from all sides. I mean, I remembered this part about her technique, but I don't remember seeing it in action before this, and it was certainly far greater than I gave it credit for.
This went against most commonly accepted theories about cultivation, as breaking the barrier between the outside world and your core was how most people below the nascent soul stage either reset their own cultivation or the cultivation of their opponents. It also serves as protection for your cultivation from the outside.
So, opening your core like this could be dangerous, especially because it could let in different kinds of impurities or demonic Qi. Or at least it would if Vale's meridian network was not so massive and compact to act like a filter or net to capture anything trying to sneak in.
The only way for something to get to Vale's core and mess with her cultivation is for something specifically designed to cripple someone for the rest of their life to hit her with full force.
Even then, it would not cripple her because her core was open, and there was nothing in there for it to latch on to right now, and that is if you discount the biggest issue here, which is that she has four separate cores.
This meant that if you took out one of them, you would still need to take out three more to truly cripple her.
These cores were also larger than normal for even the most advanced and powerful techniques that I know of, making it to where she effectively had the cultivation of four people at least one minor realm above her.
If you were to put that into perspective, Vale would be able to match someone who cultivated one of the most advanced and powerful techniques to the Ninth stage, and Vale is only in the sixth.
It is no wonder why she needs a body-tempering technique! If it were another technique or any other person who cultivated this, they would have already exploded by now.
However, since there was no injury and it was precisely like she said, I pulled my Qi back and let go of Vale while getting up from the couch.
When I caught sight of her face again, I saw that she had a look of disappointment. This made me feel the need to sit down and cuddle with her until she felt better, but I knew that would not do her any good in the long run.
So I turned to her and said, "It was good that you realized what you had said earlier, but I will still need to punish you for it. So that means you won't be having any of the special dessert that I planned to make for you earlier."
The moment I said this, I saw her head bolt up and look at me in shock with big puppy eyes, or should I say kit eyes, that stabbed my heart.
However, I had to harden it and keep my stance, so I quickly said, "I will be going to get those techniques I promised now." Before quickly turning around and leaving the house towards the peak of that Elder who sent my kit on a sky diving trip.
(Vale POV)
After hearing that Mom was going to get those techniques for me, I could not stop my tail from waving around in happiness, even though I still felt bad about earlier.
I then turned to look at the only other person left in the room, the Sect Master, and asked, "Do you have a box of gears by any chance?"
The Sect Master was looking around the room when I asked this question, so when he heard it, he was startled for a second before looking back at me with a suspicious look on his face. He then said, "Only if you don't ask why."
His response only roused my curiosity even more. However, I set it aside and agreed with his request, "Alright."
Hearing my agreement, he pulled out ten different ornate boxes filled with stylized gears and said, "Take your pick."
Looking at the boxes and then looking back at the Sect Master for a few seconds, I finally chose a box of gears that were decorated with stars and constellations, saying, "I'll take this one."
Picking up the box from his hands, I then continued on with what I was originally planning and asked, "So now that Mom is gone, do you want to go to the town and build the shrine?"
This seemed to both catch him off guard and intrigue him as he raised one of his eyebrows and asked, "You can still do that? Aren't you afraid that Aunty Raina will punish you more for leaving the house?"
Not taking that long to think about my response and whether or not I would be punished for leaving the house, I responded to him, "Yeah, I can still make the shrine. And besides, my punishment was that I would not be able to have dinner. There was nothing in there saying that I was grounded."
The Sect Master did not seem entirely convinced about what I said, but in the end, he only retorted, "You can't blame this on me when she gets mad at you."
With that as confirmation, I got up from the couch and ran out the door as I heard the sect master yell from behind me, "Hey! Where are you going?!"
Already running through the door in the courtyard, I yelled back at him, "To get my bike!"
When I heard the response, I was already halfway across the garden-turned-shrine and rushing to the door of the workshop. "You mean that loud piece of scrap metal can fly!?"
This caused a small spark of rage to light up inside me as I shouted back, "Don't you dare ever call a motorcycle a piece of scrap metal again!"
I did not hear the response he gave to that, if there ever was one, as I had already dashed through the side door of the workshop aiming for the door to carpool.
The moment I made it through the carpool door, I saw Yuki cleaning my helmet as I heard someone walk into the workshop behind me.
Running up to Yuki, I grabbed my helmet from her hands and jumped on the bike while saying to her, "Sorry for being rude, but I have places to go and people to see."
With that I kicked started the bike as the Sect Master walked through the door.
I then watched as Yuki, who was behind the Sect master, pushed the button for the garage door.
The Sect Master spun around when he heard this and looked at Yuki but was soon distracted once more by me reving the engine and rocketing forward toward the barely open door.
This caused a look of panic to cross his face, but I ignored that with only a smile appearing on my face and flipped the switch to activate flight mode.
With the switch flipped, I then leaned to the side, almost laying the bike flat as I threaded the open gap in the garage door and rocketed outside.
Now that I was free, I righted the bike and pulled the front wheel up so that I could start my ascent.
Behind me, I heard the sound of cursing before the bang of someone hitting their head on metal, followed by more cursing that started getting louder.
Soon enough, I saw the Sect Master fly up beside me with nothing to support such a flight.
The look that he was giving me said that he wanted to kill me, which was only made all the funnier by a red mark stretching across his forehead.
It was so funny that I could not hold myself back from laughing, causing the sect master to scowl even more before he got a distant look in his eye.
Eventually, I pulled him out of his daydream by asking where in town we were supposed to be going. He then said that it was in the middle of town in the town square, which was the largest open space in the town, usually reserved for giving announcements and welcoming new disciples.
Nodding along with that, I remembered that there was a road leading directly out from the town square to the edge of the forest, where we should be coming into town from.
So now, with a destination in mind, I dropped into the next gear and sped towards the town on my first flight with my new motorcycle.