Chapter 69 The Setup
"Is there a woman that feels confident?" Whitney, the blonde from Evalyn's tennis team, chuckled, "No offense, but that's not helping your good guy image."
Kaze turned to the woman sitting in the lotus position with a slight smile. "Is that so? Is it normal for serial killers to ask for volunteers?"
"Depends on how sick they are." She replied, unwavering.
"Pray tell, what type of serial killer do you take me for?" He mused, "What are my fetishes?"
Whitney turned bright red. Her half-joking only went so far.
"Here, I'll answer you. I like giving my victims great living, billion-dollar techniques, teaching them things to give them hope so their despair can drop as far as possible." Kaze smiled.
Everyone froze; the topic was very volatile, so they prayed he was joking.
"Or maybe—just maybe—I exclusively have Yang Qi that can help women divulge the Qi channels in their bodies because they have Yin Qi." He mused.
"However, using it on men who have Yang Qi exclusively would make them scream out in agony.
Assuming such an improbable thing is true, I'm sure it would affirm the Kaze Kills College Student faction's suspicions of my sinister plots and nefarious deeds."
Kaze gave her a mocking smile to seal his extraordinary sarcasm.
"I-Is that actually what you're doing?" Whitney gulped. Assuming it was true, it was a lucrative boost, and she would regret joking around.
"Who knows." He replied with a slight smile, "Would you like the be my guinea pig?"
Her eyes widened, and she looked at everyone else with a nervous gaze.
"Can't you answer my question?" She asked nervously.
"I refuse to answer a question so pointless." Kaze laugh-scoffed.
"Unlike you all, I do not enjoy wasting valuable time and opportunities to brand someone untrustworthy and then ask them questions.
Such timeless irony is as tiresome as it is sterile."
Everyone smiled wryly, understanding the tragically useless nature of questioning him.
"I-I'll do it!" Whitney announced quickly, unwilling to let the opportunity go.
She could see multiple people seeking an opportunity to volunteer, so she wanted to beat them to it.
"Hoh? It seems you've acquired some common sense." Kaze chuckled, "Okay. When I do this, you are to immediately start cultivating after guidance and present the results.
You also must not ask for further guidance; I shall not provide it, so don't waste precious class time."
Her eyes widened in confusion, and everyone else looked at him in the same light.
"Why did you emphasize the need not to ask for further guidance?" Whitney asked nervously.
"It seems I spoke too soon." He scoffed, "We just discussed how wasteful it is to squander time with useless questions, yes? Is there anyone else—"
"I'll do it!" Whitney yelled.
Kaze rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Can you follow three simple instructions without needing further clarification?"
"Y-Yes…." She gulped, "Cultivate after, present the results immediately, and do not seek further guidance. I got it."
"Good. I can't wait for you not to follow them." He chuckled sardonically.
"Come, close your eyes and cultivate. Everyone else, I also transferred a mortal technique called [Minor Vision]; can you use it?"
"I was going to ask you about that…." Victoria said hesitantly, "But I'll do it. I mean, I'm doing it right now!"
Kaze chuckled, satisfied that one person had enough common sense not to waste his time.
Watching her realize that she voiced her words aloud and immediately correct herself was comical.
Everyone watching his warm gaze set to work doing the same immediately.
"Um, Kaze, I can't seem—"
"If you can't make it work, just listen to what other people say." He clarified, "I'm not here to teach you frivolous things you can do in your free time."
The man asking the question gave him a bitter smile and lowered his gaze.
Every male was acutely aware that Kaze was exponentially more patient with women than men. It made them bitter, but they didn't judge him for it.
Kaze gave everyone a few minutes so that Whitney could get into a trance-like state and for the other members to figure out the technique that allowed them to see Qi breathing.
If he weren't patient, using a dual cultivation technique on a woman would stoke the flames of mistrust a hundredfold, and he wasn't looking forward to that. It was a serious situation.
"I see that nineteen of you understand the technique." He asserted, "Those that have figured it out, please explain what you see to everyone else."
He didn't need to ask because everyone with the technique looked unblinking between Kaze and the other students with bloodshot eyes.
Now that they could see Qi breathing into people, they could see how pathetic normal cultivators were and how refined Kaze was.
They felt like they were looking at a work of art painted into a Qi anatomy textbook!
His minor meridians were breathing more Qi than everyone's major meridians combined.
Not each person's Qi intake—all 69 students' intake.
Not just that, the body was perfectly distributing the Qi in beautiful, complicated pathways that were completely efficient.
Kaze Lexicon was absurd to look at.
If they knew that he suppressed his technique to the lowest output, they would cry tears of blood.
"Hoh? You're surprised that the most-sought after cultivator teacher in the world can cultivate?" Kaze mused mockingly.
The people staring at him like he were a god turned bright red and averted their gazes.
"Considering that I taught you that technique without any effort on your part, you'd assume that your trust would be higher." He chuckled.
"Enough of that. Turn to Whitney; you can see her Qi breathing, yes?"
Everyone that had the technique nodded, while others looked at them enviously, feeling inferior.
"Everyone else, you can see her glowing light red from Illuminecent Breathing, correct?" Kaze asked, "That's all you need; the advanced sight just prevents my villainous trickery."
Many giggled or chuckled at his facetiousness and nodded.
"Whitney, are you feeling confident in your cultivation?" He asked.
"I'm sure it's not great, as I'm learning, but I'm as confident as I've ever been." Whitney nodded.
"Good answer." Kaze smiled while walking over to her, "Okay, I will now help you find the Qi pathway to your lung meridian."
Whispers spread through the crowd. They were shocked because that was the one they could feel the most!
The lung meridian network starts from the wrist to the collarbone, officially known as the clavicle.
It was an easy place to feel Qi, and its relationship with breathing made it feel effortless.
"Okay." Whitney said nervously, not wanting to ask further questions.
"This will feel strange, but try to control emotions and keep cultivating." He chuckled after his finger illuminated in gold light.
She wanted to snap her eyes open in shock at his words, but he had already touched her wrist and traced the pathway to her clavicle at ghostly speed.
No one saw him move, but—
"AhhhhhhhhHHHH~!" Whitney moaned aggressively. She clasped her trembling hands over her mouth with her eyes open, pushing her elbows down to pin her skirt.
Her moan was unworldly, and everyone got defensive, thinking he was trying to do something highly sexual.
"W-What did you just do?" She asked while trembling with relaxed shoulders. Her amygdala was in overdrive, pumping out dopamine in high quantities.
"Three instructions, yes?" Kaze scoffed in annoyance.
"Oh! S-Sorry!" Whiney replied, closing her eyes again.
He turned back to the rest of the class. "One instruction, yes?"
Everyone who had the technique down immediately returned to work; everyone who didn't have the technique watched him like a hawk.
"Focus on the area I just traced for you." Kaze instructed.
Whitney nodded and began cultivating again. When she did, she trembled in shock. "W-What… how?"
Those without the technique watched her in confusion, turning to the people with the technique. When they did, gazes that were even more perplexed!
Everyone else could tell that red glow had shifted on her left side around her arm and chest area. It wasn't much, but it was visible enough to tell a difference.
"W-What just happened?" A woman muttered in disbelief.
"I-I don't know." A man replied.
Kaze looked at the justice warriors with an annoyed expression; only two of them figured out the technique, so they gave him bloodthirsty gazes instead of looking at everyone else.
"There is only so much patience that I have." He muttered under his breath. Then he clapped in annoyance, getting everyone's attention.
"Whitney, three instructions, yes?" Kaze asked in annoyance.
"O-Oh, yes. It's like night and day!" Whiney replied, "I can feel the Qi moving front the area that you… that you…."
"That's enough." He chuckled breathlessly, "Any other insights you want to provide to the class?
Eleven people lack the intelligence to look around them and feel like I've molested you."
Those people's faces burned red with ire.
"And they're still lacking common sense." Kaze scoffed in annoyance, "Can you explain what you felt when I touched you?"
"You didn't molest me! I mean, it felt amazing. Like, the most magical thing I've ever felt—"
"The practical. I'm certain that everyone here knows that it felt really good." He laugh-scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"O-Oh, right, sorry." Whitney said, "When you touched me, it's like there was energy pulsing into me at the Qi points I never noticed.
Now, when I cultivate, I can feel them, making cultivation so much easier! I'll gladly be your guinea pig whenever. Is there any way you can help—"
"There instructions." Kaze scoffed breathlessly, vexed by her behavior.
Everyone was bewildered that he gave Whitney three instructions that proved prophetic.
"Great. He's making slaves." A brunette scoffed breathlessly. It was very light, but his hearing was incredible. So he didn't miss her comment.
Nevertheless, he smiled. "Is there another woman interested in gaining help?"
"Good luck with that." A blonde said under her breath.
However, over half of the women's hands immediately shot up without hesitation.
Every woman who could use Minor Sight had their hands raised with profound desperation in their eyes.
The rest either got lost in the Qi readers' enthusiasm or Whiney's enthusiastic reaction. A few people saw the glow, so they also knew it worked.
"What?" The brunette who scoffed whispered in disbelief, looking at the emperor.
"Your unparallelled lack of situational awareness is an inspiration to dead spiders everywhere." Kaze smiled mockingly, tilting his head to her right.
She turned her head with the fluidity of a rusty cog to her side.
The two ardent supporters of the Kaze Kills College Students faction who got Minor Vision had their hands raised.
They turned to the brunette and blonde with shamed expressions but didn't put their hands down.
One of them didn't hold shame so much as it was a desire to explain. However, she didn't waver in the slightest.
"Yes, yes. Humans are truly remarkable beings." Kaze chuckled.
"I give everyone a technique to watch what I'm doing, yet the people [watching me] didn't use it to safeguard their sanctimonious viewpoints.
Otherwise, they might look like these two. We can't have that, can we?"
Those aggressively suspicious of his intentions turned bright red when everyone in the area laughed at them.
"Well, your refusal to watch everyone else's reactions is these two's reward." Kaze smiled.
"Lilly, Rein, will you come up here so I can help expose your Qi channels?"
The Kaze Kills College Students faction watched their friends walk to the front in horror.
There were only two outcomes: they'd be turned into mindless sex puppets, or they'd become beacons of Kaze's honesty, and everyone would shame them endlessly.
In both scenarios, they were about to lose.
The emperor watched their faces with a malicious hidden behind his eyes.
He was temporarily limited in his punishment tactics for those that disobeyed his authority or sullied his name.
However, he never let those who walked over him roam free without retribution, and he set up the preparations for their execution.
With a small seed, a few demonstrations, and a new system, he planned to permanently cripple the dissidents that didn't change their tune before the end of his lecture.
While they were concerned about getting shamed, they didn't know what was yet to come.