After having my breakfast interrupted before it even started, Kaz can't quite hide his excitement at being able to possibly put us in situations that in any other context would be torture, all in the name of our training.
Unfortunately he also can't hide that he doesn't have much experience teaching people. The way his mood changed when Baha questioned him and disdained the role of a functional filter is troubling.
On the other hand, I can tell he's actually teaching, I honestly feared he'd put us through meaningless trials simply because he found it amusing, but he seems to know how to separate fun from duty.
When I see, or rather feel, the two idiots calm down, I focus on meditation again, I try to accumulate only the energy of the wind, unfortunately I soon have to stop. After all, every Synchroner that stores more than one type of energy in the dantian has to be careful to balance the different forms of energy in their dantians so as not to cause an unwanted reaction.
Using myself as an example, if I keep too much wind energy I'll start showing symptoms of altitude sickness, but if the excess is from rupture energy things like my blood vessels bursting on their own would start to happen.
Neither of the two possibilities is pleasant.
As I don't want Kaz to get too interested in the energy of rupture, I stop meditating as soon as I reach the balance point of the two forces that coexist in my dantian, with nothing I need to do right away, I listen without interrupting the private 'class' that Baha is having.
"Use your heart."
What the hell? What happened to training? Why did this become a motivational conversation?
A little later I hear Kaz explain that he was speaking literally, about using the heart as a base to filter out noise.
What the lack of context can do. Kaz motivating someone? I should have known it was a misunderstanding.
"Mingten if you're done with cultivation, come here, I'll need more than one person for what I want to demonstrate." The gallon drinker obviously noticed that I stopped the cultivation, no surprise there. Why he needs one more person is what I want to find out.
Please let me not regret.
I approach them and ask:
"What you want?"
"No big deal, I just think it will be easier and more efficient if the two of you personally feel the effects of the training." The liquor thief speaks, noticeably calmer and more composed than before my cultivation session.
"Okay, what exactly do you need?" I ask, a little less tensely, at the end of the day I have to get used to interacting with him if I go through with the idea of making him an ally of the Order.
"I just want us to sync our hearts, and before you make any jokes, I'm being literal."
No need to warn me I overheard the conversation you guys had earlier, but I must admit that faced with a phrase like 'synchronizing our hearts' it's hard not to scoff at how corny that sounds.
"Wait a minute? There's no problem right? No tricks for us… to put me in some near-death situation this time, right?" Baha asks, anxiety almost written on his face, is this a new tattoo?
But honestly, I'd also rather not be tricked into near death, and I think Baha has a little resentment towards me since the betting incident, hard not to notice the 'us' for 'me' exchange.
"No, not this time. Now sit down and extend one of your hands so that you can each feel the other's pulse." Kaz speaks again with the commanding tone he used when he advised us in the practice match.
We do as requested, extending our hands so that we each touch each other's wrists, Kaz and I begin to establish the connection by changing the rhythm of our hearts and a little late Baha also begins to establish the connection.
Badump, badump.
The beats gradually become the most distinct sound and feel in my senses, overshadowing all others.
Badump, Badump.
"This is the demonstration regarding using the heart as a filter, now I want you to feel the differences in my body compared to yours."
As the gallon drinker speaks, we feel his heart rate shift, quicken and drag our rhythm with his, subtly deepening the connection we form with each other's hearts, and with that as a starting point, our breathing and circulation are also synchronized with those of Kaz.
From the heart the blood is pumped with the force of a flood, rushes through our bodies like the most violent of rivers and floods every cell it touches, and then returns to the veins and back to the heart to run rampant through the arteries. In my lungs that have synchronized with Kaz's, I feel like I can create a whirlwind simply by inhaling and exhaling normally.
The feeling of power rushes through my body with unstoppable savagery, intoxicating my mind with this unparalleled sense of strength, until Kaz suddenly changes his heart rate without giving us time to adjust ours and the connection is broken, with the our bodies gradually getting back to functioning normally.
With a deep breath I try to calm down, I feel the sweat on my body and the physical and mental exhaustion of having my body forced to work at such a pace, an almost inhuman intensity, and mostly to try to stop thinking about that intoxicating feeling that is destroying my focus.
"What the hell was that?" I force myself to ask, still breathing erratically.
"Like I said it would also make you two feel the difference between our bodies. What you felt is simply the result of my training." Kaz speaks convinced of what he showed us.
Not that he lack reasons to maintain that air of superiority, having that kind of strength running through your body at all times is exhilarating and tempting.
"Is that just physical strength without using Synchro? How is that possible?" Baha seems to finally understand what we feel.
"Pure physical strength, yes. Synchro is not used directly, but is used indirectly to speed up training and alter the body in some cases. That's the purpose of the physical training you're going to have." Kaz responds with calm and an irritating air of arrogance.
"Now that the demonstrations are done do the push-ups, squats, sit-ups and sprints each for as long as you can, when you reach your limits count thirty seconds and start the last exercise you did again" So far he's talking about a Normal training, the fact that it has no clear goal beyond simply pushing us to the limit makes it intense, but no mortal danger or torture as we feared. "If possible while you're counting down the seconds to start over, try to cultivate it doesn't matter if you basically end up accumulating zero energy, but try."
We started the training regimen, without complaining or questioning the need for it, the 'demonstration' as he called it was a great persuasion and motivation for us to take it seriously. We go in the same order of exercises he talked about, so we start with push-ups like Baha and I have what can be considered a decent physique, we easily go past a hundred push-ups.
And then the two hundred, three hundred and when we get to three hundred and eighty Baha stops and starts counting the thirty seconds, I keep going until I get to the four hundred and seventy push-ups when I feel like my arms won't be able to lift my body one more time, I sit down and the It's my turn to count the thirty seconds.
Baha finishes his count and does thirty more push-ups before stopping again, just before he finishes the second section of push-ups I finish my count and manage to do another eighty push-ups.
"Start the next exercise, it's just tortur... training, I said training, when you go overboard." Hide that sadistic smile if you want someone to give you the benefit of the doubt.
On second thought, even if he hides his smile, I'll just assume he practiced his poker face while we slept.
At the end of the day we are still ecstatic from the force we feel coursing through our bodies, so we move on to the next exercise, squats, without complaining.
We passed four hundred and when we reached the thirty second count we just couldn't get up again.
"Now let's run to the next town." Kaz speaks with a sadistic smile on his lips.
One day I punch him in the face, gallon drinker.
"Why do we have to do all this anyway?" Baha asks still lying on his back on the floor.
"Because I'm not your bouncer or babysitter." I'm going to wipe that smile off your face Kaz, someday, just not today.
"Just one more question how are we going to run if we can't even stand?" Kaz's smile starts to grow in response to Baha's question, what crazy is the liquor thief thinking?
"You may not make it, but I can stand or run."
Damn, he's not thinking about...
Kaz throws himself on the floor in the same position as us, of course he will appeal to Synchro, the connection starts to form, as Baha and I couldn't accumulate any Ki between exercises we can't resist, not that with the difference of levels between us and it would make a lot of difference.
Kaz gets up, and as zombies Baha and I follow him, my whole fucking body is hurting, it's basically screaming not to move yet, the liquor thief starts walking, picking up the pace every five minutes, and to that effect of sync we follow it of course.
Damn, it feels like the muscles in my legs are going to tear.
"Hey Kaz can't we huff, huff, have a break please?" Baha asks breathlessly as our bodies mimic Kaz's run, even when we desperately want to stop.
"Ten minutes no more, complain, and maybe less." Kaz speaks still running, only stopping five minutes after he answered us.
Yanan, your lucky coin hates me.
I sit on the floor wondering if this effort will be worth it, it's not time for that Mingten, it's just the first day of training, of course it won't have any kind of immediate result, for now I should just rest.
Hmm, I need something to distract me or I'll just be able to think about how much my legs hurt.
"Hey Kaz why were you hiding like a civilian anyway?" I ask suddenly.
"I killed an emperor." Kaz responds like it's the most common thing in the world.
"Kaz is your real name?" Baha asks something I hadn't even thought about yet.
"Yes, but not complete." So the gallon drinker has a last name?
"Well, brats, ten minutes is up." Kaz announces the end of the break before either of us can ask another question.
Instantly my legs make a point of reminding my mind that they're still aching, and the liquor thief started to run.
He did not unsync.
Damn it!