Symbiote 0269: Qi Training

As the time for the training came closer, Alex and Natasha's clothes morphed into the gray Hanfu robes that were provided to them by the people in the armory.

"Come on," Natasha spoke to Xialing. "Change up."

"How?" Xialing said, confused.

"Just think about changing your clothes," Natasha said as Xialing's widow trainee suit morphed into the smaller Hanfu robe. "Apex will put a lock on your clothes for now so that you don't end up changing your outfit when in the middle of a hectic situation. You know what I told you, right?"

"Don't tell anyone about the suit. Let them think that we are just wearing the normal robes," Xialing repeated.

"That's my girl," Natasha patted her head as Alex approached her. He touched her wrist, and she felt the bracelet tighten for a brief moment before it returned to normal.

"What if I want to change clothes?" Xialing asked.

"You can just ask me. It's only a temporary thing. Once you get used to it, you won't need the lock at all," Alex said with a little smile.

Soon, the three of them made their way to the training area mentioned by Ying Nan.

…

"How familiar are you with Tai Chi?" Ying Nan stood facing the three newcomers to her domain and spoke fluent Chinese. She and Alex were able to understand Chinese with relative ease, but Xialing wasn't yet as good with English. "Specifically, the movements and breathing techniques."

"Mother used to teach them to me and Brother," Xialing said.

"We're familiar enough," Alex spoke up for himself and Natasha.

"Then this should go quickly," Ying Nan spoke. "Please follow my movements as close as you can."

The four of them quickly got into a rhythm of movements as some kind of ethereal energy was expelled by Ying Nan that affected the leaves in her surroundings. The energy followed each of her movements and moved externally in a pattern that moved the leaves around.

Alex was closely examining the energy released by Ying Nan. He thought of absorbing it but then sensed a connection between her and the energy, which told him that she would know if he interfered with the flowing energy.

They continued their Tai Chi movements for almost an entire hour before Alex noticed something on Xialing.

[EP +0.0005]

He raised his brow at the sudden influx of energy that the girl received from some external source. He didn't take all of it, only half. The rest went to Xialing as he observed the effects that it had on her body. Still, the infused energy was a pitiful amount in comparison to what the old man had previously used through the spear, which had given him 0.01 EP.

As they continued training, ten minutes after the first instance, Xialing received another infusion of the same amount of energy from the external source. This time, Alex didn't take any of it, allowing the girl to absorb it all. Instead, he attempted to trace the source of that energy. He believed that this external infusion was the reason behind Ying Nan's previous words about being unable to utilize Qi without a certain bloodline.

[This lying old coot …] Alex spoke to Natasha after Xialing's fourth infusion at the one hour and thirty-minute mark since the training started. [Qi has nothing to do with the bloodline. It's that dragon that helps the residents of Ta Lo awaken their Qi.]

Natasha didn't react and continued following the fluid Tai Chi movements that Ying Nan showed.

[Maybe she doesn't even know. And even if she does, it's understandable that they will safeguard their core abilities from outsiders. The only reason that they are infusing that energy into Xialing is that she is the daughter of the previous leader or whatever position her mother held in this village.]

[I'll go talk to that dragon and ask about this racism that he's showing toward me.]

Natasha didn't respond, but a faint smile crept up on her face.

The training lasted for three hours, during which a whole 0.0135 EP worth of Qi had been infused into Xialing. At this point, Alex realized that if he truly got the ability to harness Qi correctly, he could turn EP into a very good weapon. Not only that, he would be able to make it much more efficient at enhancing his hosts. While he had an idea about this from the start, coming to Ta Lo had opened his eyes to just how much of a difference the knowledge to utilize EP correctly would make.

The revelation only intensified Alex's desire to quickly understand all there was to understand about EP.

Should I just let out the dark dweller guy and devour a couple of people in the chaos that ensues …

Alex shook out of his intrusive thoughts. At the same time, he was willing to do that and even massacre the whole place, but that was only if he felt it to be completely necessary. Instead, he was more interested in absorbing the manpower of Ta Lo into his own forces in the future. Especially since, considering Xialing's aspirations of taking over the Ten Rings in the future and Natasha's fondness for the girl, she would be the perfect person to lead this force.

"To awaken Qi is a long and arduous process," Ying Nan said, "You will need to train in Qi for at least a whole year before you can even harness a small part of your innate energy."

While Alex made a show of understanding, he growled inwardly. This woman was trying to make the process as slow as possible so that Xialing would stay in Ta Lo for a long time. Alex had no plans to allow that.

…

Realizing Ying Nan's delaying tactic, Alex didn't passively wait for another opportunity and sent another body to the lake behind the village. He would directly talk to the source of that external infusion of Qi and take care of things as quickly as possible.

Without even taking form, an invisible blob of slime dove into the lake and started moving deeper. He had already sensed the enormous source of EP at the bottom and approached it quickly.

[Devouring this dragon would at least net me a couple of thousand EP minimum …]

Alex's words left Natasha speechless. [Are you going there to talk to the dragon or to eat it?] She chided him.

[Just a thought … it will take me a minute to dive to the bottom.]

Soon, he was in the range of the Dragon, and it detected his presence. He wasn't particularly using Chaos Energy to camouflage himself, so it was understandable that the Dragon detected him.

Alex took his human form in front of the dragon and waved at it with a smile. It rose its head a little and faced Alex with what could only be a confused expression on its face. Alex gestured with his hands that he wanted to touch it, which only further confused the dragon. He moved forward with his palm extended toward the dragon, but it recoiled, looking at his palm with suspicion.

Alex made gestures with his hands to convey, 'Just let me touch you …' He moved forward, but the dragon recoiled once again, still suspicious.

What followed was essentially a chase through the water as Alex tried his best to get closer to the dragon, but it kept moving away from him. Being a water creature, there was no way for Alex to forcefully grab the dragon inside the water, so he could only try to communicate with gestures, which led to all sorts of nonsense meanings for the dragon. The situation only got weirder from then on as the dragon swam away, only for Alex to chase it. When he got left behind, the dragon would slow down or stop completely.

It's fucking playing with me … Alex shook his head and continued to chase the dragon, hoping that once it was satisfied, it would let him touch it so that he could establish a telepathic connection. He didn't want to use force just yet since he wanted to form a good relationship with the dragon, so he merely played along for now.

Soon enough, it was nightfall.

"You're still chasing the dragon?" Natasha asked with barely concealed amusement as the two cuddled in bed.

"Yeah …" Alex said with an annoyed expression. "I'm waiting until tomorrow. If it still doesn't stop for Xialing's energy infusion, I'm brute forcing it."

"I'm surprised you waited this long …" Natasha said. "You aren't exactly the patient kind."

"It depends on my mood," Alex said. "This place isn't so bad that I can't spend a few days here."

Natasha smiled and hugged him tighter, "We've been running around for the past few days …"

"Getting tired already?" Alex asked, wrapping his arm around Natasha and tracing his fingers along her spine.

"More like hungry," She had a suggestive look in her eyes.

"It would be a crime for me to refuse my beautiful lady's desires, wouldn't it?" Nat felt her clothes disappearing wherever Alex touched her.

"You could go to immortal slime jail for it," Her words made Alex chuckle.

***

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