...After steeling herself, Kali approached Dr. Ava and asked, "Senior, can I become your disciple? Your medical arts are the most advanced I've ever seen."
Dr. Ava looked at Kali's eyes as if she could look past the veil and insecurities. Kali couldn't help but have her heart rate accelerate. Dr. Ava opened her mouth and spoke without breaking eye contact. "I can cure your scars."
Kali's eyes widened and trembled.
Tatyana said sternly, this time with zero playfulness. "Avalonia, I hope you know what you are doing, or there will be consequences."
Dr. Ava nodded and focused on Kali again.
She faced Kali and said, "I will cure your scars, but I won't be your master if you agree. That is my first offer. I'm not so free to teach my medical knowledge to someone I don't know anything about. Less to someone I don't know when will be consumed by her heart demons."
Kali clenched her fist and resisted the urge to accept without listening to the other offers. Avalonia waited a moment, and seeing that she managed to stop herself, she continued, "My condition for you to become my side disciple is that knowing that I can heal you, I won't ever do it. I will teach you medicine, and when your skills are good enough, you will heal your scars yourself."
Kali nodded, and Avalonia continued, "My final offer is: I will make you my personal disciple and guide you step by step, but I won't ever let you heal your scars. If you someday heal them, I will inflict even worse scars myself, without caring about Yasenia's or Tatyana's opinion on the matter. Now choose."
Kali debated in her head, 'Heal my scars, wait to be strong enough, and then heal them myself, or gain an unrivaled teacher in medicine but continue living with these scars the rest of my life.'
Kali looked down and bit her lips, 'Should I just heal them? I have Elder Fredrick in the Academy, that is also extremely skilled in alchemy. He should know medical arts, but….'
Kali clenched her fist so much that blood flowed because her nails were digging up her flesh, 'Dr. Ava is the personal doctor of someone as strong as the Headmistress! There is no way that Elder Fredrick comes even close to her skill! Should I just live with this shame and humiliation for life? And gain a peerless teacher?'
Kali thought, and after ten minutes of struggling, she raised her head and looked at Dr. Ava with determination. Avalonia's eyes flashed as she looked at that pair of eyes, 'Similar, very similar to… myself.'
Kali spoke, "I reject the first offer! If I take the easy path, I will regret it in the future. However, I also reject the third offer!"
Avalonia hid her smile and asked, "Why? Is having a pretty face that important? You could use human-skin masks and appear as pretty as you want."
Kali's voice was unwavering as she spoke, "Because, even if committing everything for the good of others may be what an ideal person would do, it is always necessary to have a backdoor open. Moreover, while I will live for others… I also live for myself!"
Avalonia smirked and said, "Since you are also proficient in alchemy, I will take you as my personal disciple. Prepare yourself, Kali. Being under my tutelage is not an easy thing!"
Kali's eyes widened in surprise, and she made a stupid sound, "Huh?"
The others laughed, and Anna and Eve approached her, they wound their arms around her shoulder, and Anna said, "To think I will have the wife of my dear miss as a junior sister! What a joyful day!"
Eve said, "To think I will have another person to share my desperation of learning under Dr. Ava! What a joyful day!"
Kali smiled a little and said, "No matter how hard, I will become the best doctor beside Yasenia!"
Avalonia nodded and said, "Well said."
She turned toward Tatyana and said, "Did I overstep? I wanted to see her determination before saying yes."
Tatyana said, "You didn't. However, if you are going to do something like this in the future, do it while little treasure is awake. I don't want one of her wives suddenly leaving because of pressure while she is asleep."
Avalonia nodded again. Kali asked, "What would you have done if I chose any of the other two options?"
Avalonia said mercilessly, "Follow them. If you had decided the third option, I would have also taken you as a personal disciple, but my enthusiasm for teaching a person who doesn't even care for themselves would be quite low."
Avalonia continued, "If you had chosen the first option, I would have healed you but never speak to you again. Moreover, you wouldn't have gone too far on the cultivation road since your heart demons would have consumed you, no matter what Yasenia did."
Kali tilted her head, and Anna said, "Silly junior sister, the worst heart demons are created when we overcome a traumatic experience without actual effort! Like memory wiping or healing through simple means. Although I think young miss wouldn't have abandoned you, you would have, at most, reached the Dantian Spiritualization realm. Young miss is bound to become someone extremely strong! Dantian spiritualization realms will become nothing but ants for the young miss."
Cecile frowned and asked, "Are you telling us that we shouldn't use it if we find something that could solve our problems easily?"
Eve said, "Why are you looking at the world as black or white? There are much more colors in life. You have to become discerning to know how to differentiate these things. The road is long, and our lifespan is extremely long. Learning through the years and gaining experience is how we advance in the cultivation road. How do you think the first cultivators reached new heights? Trying again and again and again!"
Tatyana said, "Let's see Yasenia's fight against Isla again. I will explain some things that Isla did wrong. In truth, Yasenia wouldn't even have had the ability to hurt her if Isla had played her cards well enough. This will help all of you to learn not to make the same mistakes."
The girls sat, and Tatyana reproduced the video.
When midnight arrived, they heard rustling from the bed, so Tatyana stopped speaking. Anna and Eve were already by Yasenia's side, with several things she may ask for.
Yasenia opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. Her golden-red slit eyes glowed softly in the night, giving her an ethereal beauty.
No one said anything as Yasenia just looked at the ceiling, recalling why she was there; the head concussion caused a short-term memory loss. However, she soon remembered everything, and she spoke with a sigh, "I lost."
Anna, at the side, said, "Young Miss, your fight against Isla was impressive. The fact that you managed to damage her so much is an accomplishment other people would be proud of."
Yasenia smiled and said, "Good to have you by my side again, Anna, Eve."
They smiled and said, "We are back, miss!"
Angel approached her side, and when Yasenia reflexively moved her tail to pick her up, she hissed in pain, her lovers panicked, and Avalonia said, "Young miss, the bones of your tail broke in 27 parts. I do not recommend moving It."
Yasenia moved her neck to look at Avalonia but yelped in pain again. Avalonia said, "Your neck muscles are also torn because of the impact on the arena wall. I also recommend not moving the neck."
Yasenia exclaimed, "Say everything I can't move at once!!"
Avalonia said, "I think I would end faster saying what can you move."
Yasenia became stupefied and used her energy to analyze herself. After a while, she said, "How am I still alive?"
Andrea, Evelyn, Tatyana, Anna, and Eve burst into laughter, and the others frowned. Avalonia said, "I was asking that to myself while watching your battle; the fact that your meridians didn't burst was a miracle in itself, you being able to speak after hitting your head so hard with the arena wall… I can include that in the mysteries of the world book, and it would be accepted. You should have fainted instantly after that kind of impact, yet you managed to use a skill like [Starfall]..."
Tatyana said, "It seems that the one supervising the match was bought by the Heavenly Sect and didn't end the match until a sure kill attack landed. Of course, I will have to have a nice chat with that bastard afterward…."
Yasenia frowned and asked, "Why can't I use [Day and Night] to its full potential? With the amount of energy usage I was using, if I did [Midnight] followed by my finisher, [Falling sky], I would have directly died because of the aftershock."
Tatyana said, "Little treasure, that skill enters the qualifications of berserk skill. Those types of skills are normally used as the last resort, especially when fighting at full strength. [Day and Night] is especially strong between them."
Yasenia blinked in understanding, avoiding moving her body. Tatyana continued, "little treasure, what are you constantly doing through [Day and Night]?"
Yasenia thought and answered doubtfully, "Gathering energy?"
Tatyana nodded, "Your skills gather energy inside you, be it Moon or Sun energy, to release them using [Noon], [Full Moon], [Starfall], or [Midnight]. Moreover, in the middle of [Day and Night], you use [Dawn] and [Dusk] to conserve the previously accumulated energy. Imagine that you don't use [Full Moon], [Noon], or [Starfall], and you accumulate everything, releasing it with [Midnight]."
Yasenia smiled wryly and said, "I die."
Tatyana nodded, "This time, you didn't use [Full Moon] because you didn't need it. How did you feel after using [Noon]?"
Yasenia said, "I felt like I was about to burst. However, after using the skill, I felt lighter. I was even able to react to Isla's transformed state with my slower [Sunset] attack. *Sigh* Will I never be able to fully use [Day and Night]?"
Tatyana shrugged and said, "That depends on what kind of innate skills you develop when you reach the Unification Realm. Maybe when advancing in the [Connection with Celestial Bodies], you will unlock a skill that lets you use it. Maybe the movement technique you will start learning when you reach the Unification realm will help. You can also have the luck of eating a treasure in the secret realm…."
Yasenia got impressed at all her options. Tatyana smirked and said, "The options are countless, little treasure. Remember, there is always a way. You just have to learn to see the opportunity and not let go."
Tatyana turned toward the others and said, "This goes for all of you. Sacrificing yourself is normally the easiest way to accomplish something. The most difficult thing is achieving something and not sacrificing anything to get it. That is the optimal way you must approach every problem. First, think about how you can get what you need and leave that situation, unscratched. Only after all your options have run out should you begin to think about what you can sacrifice to get everything else. Ask yourselves, Is it worth it? If it is, then act on it."
Tatyana looked at everyone and said, "It is time to return to the Academy! I've already got the entry jades for each of you, so don't worry."