"Now for the Yin Paw group," Deacon Dai ordered after everyone in the Yang Hand group had been evaluated.
Ku Lo, though standing in the front row, didn't want to be first; however, someone pushed him out of the line.
'Really?' he thought, legs stumbling a few steps forward.
"Oh, I remember your pretty face." Deacon Dai noted with a quill and paper in hand. "But what was your name again?"
"It's Ku Lo." His feet stepped onto the white line, trying not to be provoked by the guys laughing and jeering at him.
"Ku Lo… Ku Lo," Deacon Dai repeated once. "Aren't you the student who didn't show up yesterday?"
'Like things could've turned towards the better,' Ku Lo lamented, turning to look at Deacon Dai, whom he had paid little attention till now due to his recent bad luck with girls. 'Well, a hot teach improves life a bit.' Deacon Dai's voluptuous body was nearing Rias Gremory levels of stuffing.
Ku Lo's eyes travelled through her childbearing hips barely contained by her tight dress and blonde hair nearing said hips before responding, "I am."
"Good that you are here-" She took a pause to scribble a note into her paper. "Stay here after we're done."
"Sure." He had been expecting a poorer outcome than this. "May I continue?"
"Of course."
As Ku Lo began concentrating, he could hear two men whisper. "Who does he think he is? Trying to learn The Yin Paw?" one whispered. "Some guys just are like that. Wired differently and all," another responded. "But think about the deeper meanings of it." "I don't dare."
'Hmm?' Their little conversation intrigued Ku Lo, yet now wasn't the time for questions. It was time for action.
'You can do this!' With the guidance received from Rin Tin Tin, he believed that if nothing else he should be able to launch The Yin Paw, which should be good enough for him. Not everyone in the Yang Hand group had manifested a projectile of Yang Qi, so he wasn't too worried about failure.
Maybe it was this complete freedom from the fear of failure which made the gathering and channelling of Yin Qi much easier than before. The dissipation rate was less than half of what it had been at the end of his training with Rin Tin Tin, and she wasn't a bad teacher.
'Not yet,' he recalled when the Yin Qi was soon to hit his fingernails.
Still, it didn't take much longer before his fingernails had a violet hue to them.
"Yin Paw, First Form!" he roared and lashed out his hands in a twirl.
The Yin Qi projectile shot out in ten beams, which combined into one larger beam a meter in front of him. This singular beam then razed through the twenty meters of air in less than a second before crashing against the target dummy's leg.
'Nice!' Ku Lo almost flexed his muscles but didn't as this could barely be considered average when compared to someone like Feng Huling, let alone Deacon Dai. In the end, The Yin Paw he created didn't pierce the training dummy's skin.
As he walked to the back, Deacon Dai complimented his efforts.
'Heh.' Praise from her was worth a lot.
Also, as he returned to the Yin Paw group, the two cuties he had noted during the 'mixer' as sisters evaluating the boys for looks approached him.
"I thought you wouldn't even produce a shred of Yin Qi." A hand played with her light-brown, chest-length hair.
"Un. You weren't bad," the other one wasn't as brazen in her words or flirty with her actions.
"This was my first time learning the Yin Paw so…"
"Sure, whatever you say," one of the two said, but both giggled.
Ku Lo raised his eyebrows. "But this was my first time?"
They shook their heads. "Maybe your tenth."
"More like the twentieth."
"Okay," he sighed, not interested in an argument. "You want something from me?"
They shook their heads. "We came to introduce ourselves."
"I'm Huang Gingge," the less brazen one introduced
"I'm Huang Qingling." Her hand was still playing with her hair as she bit her lower lip.
"Sisters?"
"You'll get your answer next time we meet," Huang Qingling answered before leaving.
"See you..." Huang Gingge rushed after her sister.
Left alone, he couldn't help but think that the people in this world weren't good with subterfuge.
…
Some time later. As Ku Lo's classmates were rounding a corner in the distance, he approached Deacon Dai — the only person left on the training field with him.
"I wouldn't have believed you either," Deacon Dai said.
Confusion grew on his face.
"The two girls. If I hadn't watched you with one eye, I would've thought you had previous experience in The Yin Paw."
"Maybe I'm a quick learner?" Ku Lo, having played too many games, would always be quick to learn new things. Also, in his old world, learning and visualisation techniques were common to the point of being obnoxious, a stark contrast to here where they seemed to be extremely rare.
"Maybe genius?" Deacon Dai gave her own take. "I haven't seen anyone as talented as you before."
'Shouldn't this be a punishment? Why is she praising me instead of giving me a punitive lecture?'
"Hey! I'm being dead serious here!" She stomped her foot. "You have an incredible talent, and on top the affinity to practise Yin Qi based techniques better than most girls despite being a boy."
Ku Lo quit his pondering. "What's this thing about Yin and Yang Qi, anyway? Why were the guys jeering at me?"
"That… You don't know?"
"Well, it seems that guys practice with Yang Qi, while women train with Yin Qi," he explained everything he knew for sure. "But why is it so? I don't know the specifics." He opened his arms to the sides and showed open palms.
"I almost forgot you weren't present yesterday," Deacon Dai said and looked around them, scanning the surroundings before continuing. "How about I give you an extra lesson, so you can catch up? At my place?" During the last sentence, she winked.
A nuclear alarm went off inside Ku Lo's head. Sirens wailed, lights flickered when his ears heard her proposition.
"I-I don't know…" He scratched the nape of his neck, taking a step back.
"Are you sure? To practise Yin Qi techniques, a man will need a lot of excess Yan Qi as balance if he wants to stay sane."
Ku Lo didn't fully understand her meaning, but her words calmed by intriguing him.
Deacon Dai continued. "A girl at the same cultivation level as you might not give you sufficient Yang Qi. You'll turn into crazed night-fiend due to Yin Qi excess."
No response.
"This is The Yin And Yang Sect, Ku Lo."
Her reasoning sounded plausible. The matter of Ku Xie pressed him to find power. Her aura and position as a deacon convinced him further. Her mature charm almost gave him the last push. Still, there was a heavy counterweight.
"You want power? I'll give you power. You want beauty? Good luck finding better. All I ask is for you to let me help you flourish."
'Power… power is everything.' On the Earth, this would surely near prostitution; however, in this sect… it was logical? The previous Ku Lo, in this situation, would have rushed between her balloons while crying 'yes please'… 'Not everyone can be a bad person, right?' He decided to take the risk, for the reward was high. Rin Tin Tin had to be a rotten apple, he thought, lowering his defences.
"No need for more, Deacon," he stopped Deacon Dai, who was still stating reasons. "You have convinced me."
"Great!"
"However, what's in this for you?"
"More than there's for you," she replied with a smile.
"So I'm a long-term venture?" He had imagined malicious intentions, but now it seemed Deacon Dai would use her current standing in hopes of gaining returns.
"Mmm."
"Anything else I need to know? For example, it's not too late to reveal that you have a husband." Every sentence Ku Lo heard made him more optimistic, yet this optimism had been his downfall last time. This time, he should be prepared to face anything Deacon Dai could throw at him.
Deacon Dai seemed a bit baffled after hearing him. "Me, a husband?" She pointed at her chest. "I've never thought of such things. Then again, I'm getting old, so maybe I should."
Ku Lo raised an eyebrow, as she looked around thirty at most. 'Then again, people married young in the past, so maybe it's old for this world'. "And you approach your student for that?"
"Why not? Anyway, that depends on how you turn out."
Sheer bewilderment took over his face as it nudged back. 'Should I be happy or taken aback?' Being a husband candidate for such a world-class beauty was great, but — 'Forget it, overthinking it won't help!'
'I should get my entire worldview adjusted as quickly as possible.' Ku Lo would forsake his old morals for a chance at living in the near future. 'Commence operation 'every boy's dream'.'
Ku Lo stared straight into her brown, gorgeous eyes. "You've made a brilliant investment, 'Lady Dai'."