Chapter 244 July 20th, 2032 | Psychosis

"Should we say something?" Jake asked nervously, glancing to his right subtly.

"No." Veronica shook her head, "We shouldn't get involved in matters of this magnitude without consulting Kaze. We'll do that if things return to how they were yesterday."

"I know, but still…." He gulped, "She looks like she needs medical treatment."

The two sat in the lotus position before the lake in the Sanctuary, awaiting Kiera's arrival.

Sage lay to their right, taking deep breaths in a black muscle shirt and shorts, trying to stay sane. Her arms and legs had sickly blue veins pulsing around her meridian points.

"Kaze generously taught us a heaven-grade technique, and Kiera is risking her life and reputation to help us with practice as an optional resource." Kylie said somberly, "If Kiera has a problem with Sage, then Sage is lucky to be here."

"Lucky?" The redhead laughed hoarsely, "How foolish. Kaze sent Kiera here to collect life debts and torture me."

The cabinet members looked at each other in confusion, wondering how she got that idea.

"Sage, we all owe Kaze life debts without techniques or training." Veronica said dryly, "And we're here voluntarily to get resources and practice for learning a priceless technique. How is this torture?"

"You'll~see." Sage chuckled ominously, "I'll love to hear you be thankful tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?" Jake asked.

"I'll answer that." Keira announced from behind them, walking through a warp gate, "Kazey curb stomped a Sky Planer recently, and she begged for her life like a bitch until he spared her to be our training puppet. Hashtag classified.

You get the chance to fight her for practice. Sage is crying indignity because I'll teach you like Crux taught Evalyn and Kaze taught me—by healing your wounds."

Her announcement twisted everyone's minds in multiple ways, starting with classified information, moving to promises of pain, and ending in bombshell claims.

"What do you mean by healing our wounds?" Veronica asked seriously.

"Kaze spayed the culta-hoe with a sketchy technique that'll kill her if she tries committing taboo crimes, AKA killing us." Kiera smirked, shredding Sage with anxiety, "So now she can't try to kill us.

However, she is training you for real combat against Sky Plane cultivators. So if you voluntarily train, you can expect her to maim the shit out of you.

I'll be there to keep you safe from major attacks and heal your wounds throughout."

A stunned silence washed over the area until the redhead burst into laughter.

"Sounds like a convenient setup for ac~cidents to occur." Sage laughed ominously, "To get rid of problematic people, maybe?"

"Hate to break it to ya, but Kaze doesn't need an excuse to kill you, freckle tits." Kiera giggled maliciously, "And if you were special, your participation wouldn't be voluntary.

So take a deep breath, smell the apocalypse, and suffocate. That way it's impossible for you to say dumb shit."

"Strength and political power go hand and hand here." The redhead scoffed, "This training isn't voluntary."

"It looks pretty voluntary to me." Kiera smiled viciously, glancing at her vein-sprouted body, "Kaze gave you a mandatory technique, but you were a big girl and learned it all by yourself."

"Yeah, and it was god fucking awful, Kiera." Sage laughed bitterly, "It's easy to love you and Kaze when the alternative looks like this."

"Why would Kaze want to kill you, Sage?" Veronica asked dryly, "You seem adamant he's trying to kill you despite giving you a cabinet position, techniques, and privileged business positions.

That makes me think you've done something recently that would make him want to kill you."

"Having sex with Kaze?" Sage mused, "That could inspire someone this jealous to stage an accident, yes?"

"Sage, you and I both had sex with Kaze [before] we got cabinet positions." Kylie replied.

"That's why it's amusing that you're willing to put your life in her hands." The redhead smiled, "Kiera hasn't even accepted you."

"I trust Kaze wouldn't let Kiera kill me—why don't you?" The brunette asked sharply.

"Think about Kaze and who he is." Sage scoffed, "He's the best thing that could've happened to us. But don't treat him like a saint.

It's absurd any of you would consider his actions pure generosity when he expects things in return—especially when he's collecting life debts."

CLAP!

Everyone turned to the pink-haired teen after she clapped aggressively.

"To prevent anyone else from catching Becky, let me heal you up and send you on your prissy little way." Kiera suggested, "That way, you don't owe me any life debts."

"Don't you fucking dare." Sage growled, "I'm not going to owe you [anything]."

Another stunned silence followed, with the other cabinet members looking at each other in perplexion.

"Then why are you here?" Jake asked coolly, losing patience, "There's no way you can cultivate in your condition, let alone face a cultivator.

Kiera, healing you is your only option if you want to be here, Sage."

Sage shut down with a bitter frown, angry and resentful. "Don't I know it."

"Apparently not." Kiera smiled viciously, "If I don't heal you right now, you won't be able to walk for two months. Or did you ignore what I said yesterday?"

The pressure in the atmosphere multiplied after hearing her words.

"You're just now realizing this?" The fiery teen giggled maliciously, looking at Sage's horror-stricken face, "If you don't heal up, literally [every] person in Immortal Skye will surpass you in strength.

Or did you forget what the other Immortals are doing right now?"

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"What's it feel like knowing that you're now cultivating the same grade of technique as Director Hayes?" Kaze smiled, flying above the small lake outside of the central mansion.

Thousands of Immortals surrounding it burst into cheers and excitement at his words.

"Pretty damn good, doesn't it?" He smiled, "What's it like knowing that there's not a single ultra-rich elite person on Earth that bought a technique of your caliber with their infinite wealth and fortunes?"

Thunderous applause met his words, everyone looking at each other and grinning with pride and feelings of superiority.

"Let me ask you something, do you know where the name Sky Realm comes from?" Kaze asked mysteriously.

"Because it lets you fly!?" Larkin yelled, triggering laughter and cheers from a good amount of people.

"Actually, yes." The emperor chuckled in amazement, "With the current Elemental Qi density, breaking into the Sky Realm is all that's necessary."

Larkin roared in excitement, and the entire area exploded in feverish applause and cheers, looking at their leader flying in the sky.

"The top hundred to cultivate the Sky's Breath technique today will be out on the fast track for flying lessons, something that will take most a year or longer with proper training " Kaze announced to vibrant applause, "So show me what you're made of, Immortals!"

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"Everyone learned the sky-grade technique this week…." Sage whispered in horror.

"Yeeeee~p." Kiera smacked, "[Everyone]'s quite the statistic. Tell me, Stats. How many low-grade randos are going to be stronger than you before your meridians heal. Hmmm?"

"So that's his game…." The redhead whispered, "Kaze set this up so he could dump me for impartial reasons."

"Sage, what are you talking about?" Kylie asked in perplexion, "We're anticipating an influx of beasts and cultivators, so everyone in Immortal Skye is building their strength.

That's why everyone here is risking their lives and meridians to move up despite not being ready.

Kaze isn't teaching thousands sky-grade techniques to drop you from the cabinet."

"Arguing with a paranoid narcissist is like stealing booze from an alcoholic to stop the problem." Kiera said dryly, "If you succeed, they'll self-destruct and then have a seizure.

So let's do it like this, Stats. You have two choices: let me heal you here and now, or go home and wither away as literally everyone becomes qualified to overtake you."

Sage scoffed and forced herself up slowly. "If Kaze wants me out, then I won't suffer and owe you both before the inevitable happens."

"Does anyone get the impression that Kaze is trying to push Sage out by making her do the same thing ya'll are doing?" The slang riddler asked.

"No, I don't understand this at all." Veronica said bluntly.

"Me either." Kylie said with a wry smile.

"Sage, please reconsider." Jake requested, "Even if everything you're saying is true, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing the training."

"Ignorant." Sage scoffed.

"There's a term for when someone views reality in a really, really, really-really-really different way than everyone else, Stats." Kiera smiled mockingly, "Psychosis."

The redhead's eyes flashed with murder, and she turned to the firey teen with battle intent. However, her legs collapsed, and she crashed onto the ground.

After a few more minutes of struggling, she managed to get up and leave the Sanctuary.

"Don't worry; she'll be back to bitch tomorrow when he strikes down crazy's appeal." Kiera announced, "So let's get started.

Today working on Qi control. Your goal is to intake as much Qi as an earth-grade technique."

"You can't be serious…." Veronica said bluntly, staring at the teen with wide eyes, "Our meridians are like vortexes. That shouldn't be possible."

"Minor Vision, folks." The slang riddler said, sitting in the lotus position and cultivating.

Their eyes widened when they saw Kiera intaking as much Qi as a mortal-grade technique.

"No way…." Kylie whispered in disbelief.

"How did you learn this?" Jake asked in amazement.

"Six hours of brutal torture and life debts daily." Keira replied sassily, "With this level of control, you can create arrows of any size and control them with minute detail.

We need that because we only have so many attacks with the Qi scarcity. If the cultivators come in numbers, they're like batteries and can overrun us with numbers.

So we need to learn to conserve our energy."

"I see…." Jake swallowed nervously, "So… how do we do this?"

"It's like a faucet." She replied, "Instead of lowering the vortex, suppress input completely and slowly turn it on from the top.

I'll be tracing meridians in the Angel Breath waterfalling patterns; make the Qi follow that pattern from the top down."

Kiera pulled out blue dual cultivation chalk with a slight smile. "Don't worry; by the time you're done here, you'll be a boss at cultivating. We'll start with you, Veronica—cultivate from the top only."

Veronica nodded and closed her eyes, cultivating from the top. Then the fiery teen began marking blue lines down the back of her black t-shirt one at a time, creating swirls in a clockwise motion.

"W-What is this?" The pixie asked, feeling instantaneous results.

"Waterfalling." She smiled, "Techniques are a method of accelerating Qi and a pattern of intake.

You're all creating the raw patterns at high speed; now, you're creating the patterns with practice so that when it accelerates, it intakes properly. Big difference, yes?"

"T-This is unbelievable." Veronica whispered in disbelief.

"Well, you better believe it." Kiera said, "If you can't practice this by the end of this weekend, you're scavenging for ingredients and making me cakes."

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