Hades worked tirelessly to refine his control of the fire, but it could not be helped that it was rather difficult. He had never been able to breathe fire before, so it was quite the fresh experience.
Chen Yan also aided him in his endeavors, which I was rather surprising to him. They're relationship as allies had only extended to cooperation before, where he would help her and she would help him. Now it was along the lines of support. Similar, yet different. Simply put, it was on a higher tier. Like you'd let a normal friend borrow a book, but you'd buy the book for a good friend, if that makes sense.
It turns out that humans were rather used to using fire. They used to use it all the time in their daily lives, and had upgraded into electricity, showing how adept they were in fire. To be able to make fire with mere sticks, or a push of a button. Extraordinary. As expected of the mystical humans.
Chen Yan showed Hades to suppress the energy, and let out in a small opening that was in his strength to control. In this way, he learned to alter the output of the flame, as well as conserve energy.
She taught him control and stability, by making him maintain a certain temperature and size. This was fairly difficult, and required dozens of adjustments. He would adjust accordingly to her instruction, where he would test the temperature of the flame with the 'cooking' ability that humans have.
He learned that fire and heat was crucial in the skill of cooking. To manipulate fire to the extent of willing small scale transformation in a natural product was truly an extraordinary feat. It required precision and accuracy in order to not ruin the product. She said that cooking was a derived form of alchemy, which she explained to be the combinations of natural law to induce change. Truly complex, for he could not understand.
Next he learned to release the fire from other parts of his body. This required a higher level of control, as if he wasn't careful, the heat energy would go through multiple openings, expending itself all at once.
So far, the places he could expel fire have been determined to be his mouth, nose, posterior, and the openings where his claws and blade retract or eject. By ejecting flame here, he could wreath his claws and tail blade in flames, allowing for smoother cutting and piercing. It can also increase the effective range of by a few centimeters of necessary.
This time he trained by keeping the fire at those openings so that they don't go out. He would stand next to Chen Yan while she was reading or studying, and hold the part he was training nearby, illuminating the surroundings, and allowing her to read. It would be a failure if he were to burn the books or Chen Yan, but remain bright enough so that she could see. A truly intelligent method of training.
Another form of training was destroying their waste. To control the output of destruction, he was to burn the garbage to ash without damaging the yard, and then scatter their ashes into the garden.
He was not a fool. He realized he was doing chores and odd jobs around the house. He heard from Ling'er that with him around, they saved money on lighting and gas. She no longer needed the gas stove to cook or a lamp to read, as they have a 'walking torch at her beck and call' according to Ling'er, though not all the language was completely recognizable to him.
He did not mind though, it was indeed effective training after all. His control over the fire gland only became more refined. In the end, results can't be argued with. Ling'er mentioned that this situation resembled a scene from the television, where a youthful human learned martial arts by doing chores.
The difference was that the youth washed cars and painted fences while he was a walking lamp.
On another note, reference brought to mind the term 'martial arts'. According to the material he read, it was a method to increase a human's physical battle prowess. This would be an extraordinary feat for the defenseless body that is the human, which had neither fur, scale, claws, or fangs. Only stubby fingers and smooth skin. He set this aside for future reference.
"So what am I supposed to do with this 'dormant fire qi' you spoke of?" He brought the question to Chen Yan after a week had passed since the beginning of his training.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" She looked up from her study material, and looked confused.
"You said you saw dormant qi deep within my soul a while back. Is that still there or did it just go away like an illness." He wished to make use of whatever he could in his body. He didn't know what would happen if he had two types of qi, namely the tyrant qi and the sealed fire qi, but he knew that harnessing more inherent power could never be a bad thing.
"...oh! That! You just need some relevant cultivation technique to wake it up." She said absentmindedly, before returning to her studies.
"I already have a cultivation technique though."
"Ah right. Nothing you can do about it then." She waved it off. She was a serious student with a test in a few days and did not have the leisure to indulge his curiosities all the time.
"Can one have more than one cultivation technique?" He wasn't willing to give up on it.
"Sure."
"So-!"
"If you want to explode." She put him down as fast as she brought him up. She smirked at him for walking right into it. Her revenge for him talking so much. She was already rather irritated.
"If more than two kinds of qi are in the same passageways, then they'll clash and reject each other. Simple as that. Then you explode. Boom. That's it. You're dead. Now please be quiet, so I can study. Thanks." She spoke straight to the point. Then ended the conversation right there. She obviously wanted silence.
Yet he pondered, if they were in the same passageways, then they'll clash, but what if it was in a different passageway, such as the fire gland's pathways...?