390 Training Darlene 3

He could have chosen to demonstrate it to give Darlene a feel of what manipulating space was all about. 

But if he had done so at the start, it would only prove that he can do it. It did not necessarily mean that she can too.

If she had such thoughts and failed, it would no longer be possible for him to trick her then. She would believe that every space distortion was caused by him and not her own abilities.

"Eh? Already? Since I manage to manipulate space, how about you let me off and let me practice on my own?" Darlene requested. She still had some fear of rocks being hurled at her.

Leon shook his head and denied, "No, you can practice on your own later when you become more proficient in manipulating space. Right now, it is still better to practice with rocks. My dear will improve quicker under pressure this way."

What a joke. If he did agree to her request, she would quickly find out that something is wrong when space remains unchanged. 

He would not be able to trick her either, as it would be too difficult to guess how she wanted to manipulate space with such freedom. Only by practicing with throwing rocks could he guess how she would react and trick her accordingly. 

"Hmm… fine. Hubby does have a point." Darlene unwillingly agreed. It was not like she had a choice to begin with. Feeling the uncomfortableness of being bound to the stake, she shortly requested, "Can hubby unbound me at least? I promise I won't try to run away."

"No. Just put up with it for now, my dear. It is all for your own good. Unbinding you now and returning freedom of movements to your body will lower the effectiveness of this training exercise." Leon denied her request again.

"Che, stingy." 

Darlene pouted with puffed cheeks.

Leon smiled lightly.

"I'm going to aim for your forehead again, my dear. Try bending space to curve it to the left this time." Leon suggested before tossing the rock at said destination.

Darlene widened her eyes and saw the flying rock hurled at her forehead again before it was suddenly curved left due to spatial distortion.

Poof!

The rock embedded into the left sidewall. Without turning her head to look, she snarled, "What do you have against my forehead? Don't bully my forehead! Why don't you aim somewhere else instead?! Can't you see how swollen my forehead is?!"

Leon looked at Darlene's forehead, and it was indeed a little red from being swollen even though he exerted a minuscule amount of strength and controlled the impact force with his abilities.

"But if I aim elsewhere, it will not produce the same result. Perhaps, your mind will not be as alarmed and too slow to react. If that happens, the chance of you being hit will be greater. Are you sure that is what you want, my dear? It will hurt a lot, you know?"

Darlene became hesitant after listening to his explanation. However, she quickly rolled her eyes. She was nearly fooled by Leon.

"But at the very least, I reckon it would still be better than getting hit in the forehead if I fail to curve the rock!" Darlene argued. 

If she was struck in the head at such velocity, her head might just crack open and kill her! Getting struck in the arm or leg painfully was much better compared to that!

"That won't happen!" Leon said confidently. 

"Huh?" Darlene looked at Leon with doubt and asks, "And how can you be so sure about that?" 

When Leon heard this question, he sweated. 

Because he will distort space and curve the rock for her? He obviously cannot say such a thing. He would lose all her trust and destroy the confidence and belief she had built up so far. 

"Because I believe in you!" Leon firmly said.

"Hubby…"

Darlene was immediately touched by his words and become emotional. Shortly after, her eyes were filled with determination before she said, "Since hubby believes in me so much. I will continue to do it!" 

She was filled with fighting spirit. She had to live up to her hubby's expectations. Little did she know, she had been tricked all this time.

"That's the spirit." 

Leon smiled warmly and secretly wiped his sweat. He had just dodged a bullet. He continued to hurl rocks at Darlene, while 'she' would manipulate the Spatial Law to curve the rocks left and right under his instruction.

After hurling numerous rocks, Leon began to frown and doubted if what they were doing was effective or not. 

Although he can feel that Darlene had become very confident in her ability to manipulate space, he had yet to sense Darlene manipulate space for herself.

Just as he was about to stop the training exercise, something unexpected happened. The rock that was supposed to curve left suddenly curved right after space was distorted twice. 

He immediately used Divine Will to reduce the velocity of the flying rock, but it was not enough to stop the inevitable from happening as the rock struck Darlene in the head.

"Ahhhh!" 

Darlene gave a short scream before she was knocked off.

"Oh shit!"

Leon quickly rushed over and unbound her from the stake laying her body on the ground to check her condition. 

The rock had narrowly missed her temple and struck slightly upper left of it, which was closer to the front part of her head.

The front part of the skull was the strongest compare to the other parts of it. Coupled with his quick reaction, the rock did not do much damage to Darlene.

In fact, the impact was so soft that there was not even any redness or bruising on Darlene's head. It was much weaker compared to the last one he struck her with on the forehead.

"Fortunately, there aren't any serious injuries, or rather, there are no injuries..." Leon confirmed that Darlene's life was not in danger. However, he was confused and slowly muttered, "But this is strange… The force should not have been great enough to knock Darlene out. Why did she pass out?"

"Hm?"

Just as Leon was pondering this, Darlene's arm suddenly wrapped around his neck and pulled his face closer to hers before she opened eyes and smooched him on the left cheeks.

"Hehe, surprised?"

"Haiz, you have really given me a great scare just now." Leon sighed with relief, realizing he had been tricked by Darlene. 

"It's your fault for bullying me. Did you really believe you can continue to track me without me realizing?" Darlene asked. 

"When did you realized?"

"I began sensing that something was a bit off with the timing during the 10th shot, and after the following last three shots, my doubts were confirmed. It was only then that I realized you were manipulating space this whole time to trick me into believing it was me." Darlene explained.

"Do you blame me for tricking you?" Leon asked.

Darlene shook her head as she understood why he was doing it. It was to help her develop her belief in her own ability. 

She looked at Leon lovingly and said, "No. Hubby is so good to me. I was able to awaken my ability in the end, thanks to you. Why would I blame you?"

"Still, you played a dangerous prank just now. If I had not reacted in time, you could have suffered serious head trauma. Do you believe that I will punish you for this?" 

"Hehe, I believed that hubby would not let me suffer. How will hubby punish me?" Darlene giggled. She was not afraid of his punishment.

In fact, she daringly drew her head closer and blew warm breath on his neck while drawing circles on his chest with her finger to taunt him. 

Leon felt her warmth and became aroused. However, he suppressed his lust and said, "The punishment can wait for later. How are you feeling? Can you manipulate space more freely now?"

Darlene was not sure. Thus, she reached out her hand and tested. Space was immediately twisted and bent according to her will.

This time, she was sure that this was her own power.

"Un!" 

She nodded.

"That's good. You only need to work on improving this ability to become stronger in the future. Do you believe me now when I said you will be able to cultivate?"

"Un!" 

Darlene nodded again and nestled her head against his chest, docilely with a palpitating heartbeat. Leon infused wood energy into his hand and rubbed her swollen forehead.

Shortly after the redness disappeared, Darlene let Leon picked her up like a princess and carried her into one of the bedrooms…