Chapter 40: Sparring With Elaine Part 2
"What are you worried about?"
A voice came from inside the flame. When the flame dissipated, Ken was standing there, covered in his red Qi-shaped armor.
Elaine just stood there, dumbfounded, until she realized what had happened and got embarrassed.
She stomped on the ground and shouted.
"I didn't know you had so much Qi to cover your entire body with it like an armor. I was just being worried about you."
Ken dispersed his Qi. Most of the Qi wasn't damaged by the fire, so it returned inside his body while the damaged Qi dispersed in the air.
"Well, I have a lot of Qi in my body."
Ken wasn't kidding. If he had one big advantage from practicing the Ancient Dragon Transformation Technique, it would be his Qi.
It was massive, like five times more than any other cultivator of his stage.
At the same time, he also practiced other cultivation techniques and secret techniques that improved his Qi Level.
Because of that, he could easily use a move like Qi Armor that was only accessible to those who had reached the Qi Condensation Realm.
Of course, for those who had reached the Qi Condensation Realm, this was as easy as breathing.
"Well, what are you standing there for? Didn't we come here to train?"
Ken smirked and asked, retracting his Qi Armor. Although he could squander his Qi to a certain degree, it wasn't infinite.
So, he had to be careful with his use of Qi.
His words were the signal Elaine needed. The fire underneath her feet exploded, propelling her forward.
[Exploding Steps]
With just three steps, she had reached in front of him. Facing her palm coming his way, Ken didn't panic.
He knew what she planned on doing. The purple flame spluttered from her palm, turning into an arrow, the size of her arm.
When it launched forward, it instantly reached Ken, but it didn't hit Ken.
Even though she was standing a few meters in front of him and used a fast attack like Fire Arrow on his face, Ken was still able to dodge it quite easily.
[Snake Steps]
At this moment, Elaine saw him fall sideways to the ground, but instead of falling, he was running towards her.
With the side of his feet, he was running on the ground. She instantly understood how he was able to do it.
Snake Steps was a martial art that gave user insane versatility in their movements.
To master Snake Steps, the user must learn to control their body to an extreme degree.
Before she could digest everything, Ken was already beside her with his fist approaching her stomach.
[Purple Flame Barrier]
Elaine roared, releasing the last bit of her purple flame throughout her body, condensing it into an armor.
When Ken saw this, he instantly retracted his fist and jumped back.
After using this move, Elaine wasn't just going to stand there. She raised her left hand, and the purple flame barrier collapsed around her palm.
She started controlling the collapse barrier as a normal flame.
"Smart Move! Once we use a certain element or Qi in a certain martial art, it is almost impossible to use it again."
"That's what most people think, but that's not true. There is a certain time period before it gets dispersed in the air."
"If you have enough control over it, you can change the martial arts in a span of seconds. Now, let me see what you can do with it!"
Ken clapped for her performance and felt a bit excited for her next move.
But this made Elaine embarrassed. She hadn't prepared any extraordinary move.
She could barely control this fire. She had only learned to control it into the shape of a disk.
[Five Trigrams Rotation]
She turned the purple flame into five disks of the same size and launched them towards Ken.
They spun at such a fast speed that they were tearing through the air as they approached Ken.
"I guess this is where we end this battle."
Ken muttered as he clenched his fist and released his red Qi.
[Qi Armor]
Forming an armor from his Qi, he raised his right hand and punched forward. The punch wasn't normal.
It carried an intense momentum, and when it was launched, the punch managed to shatter the first ring into pieces while those pieces struck the other rings.
[Rock Shattering Fist]
He didn't stop there. He turned to the right and kept punching.
When those scattered flames touched those rings, they didn't destroy them, but they did destabilize their positions.
And, Ken punched the second right before it was aligned with the third one to that side.
The punch broke the ring and went through the explosion and struck the other one.
Two more rings were still there. Even so, he didn't move. Those rings went several meters out of the explosion before they returned towards him.
Ken knew these rings weren't uncontrollable. There was a thin line of fire that Elaine was using to control them.
So, when these two came towards him, he opened both of his palms and clapped them in between.
Boom! Boom!
The purple flames spread out into an explosion, so massive that they almost covered the entire room.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
From the flames, Ken came out.
Seeing him, Elaine felt a bit down. After all, she didn't even manage to damage Ken and lost all of her Qi.
Now, she was completely hopeless, and a single strike from him could easily destroy her.
Of course, Ken wouldn't do that, but it didn't mean others would be so kind to her.
Seeing her mood, Ken dispersed his Qi Armor and started explaining.
"That's the problem with Fire. Unless your opponent is as strong as you, the fire can't do much."
"This kind of problem can only be solved by using external methods. I wonder if someone wants to know these methods?"
When Elaine heard that, her sadness immediately disappeared. She ran towards Ken and hugged his arms.
"Please, tell me!"
She asked with big, teary eyes that almost made her look pitiful and cute.
"There are wonderful things in nature that come in the form of flames. There are many of them. One of them is Beast Flame."
Ken raised his right hand and lit up a red fire on his index finger.
"This is Dragon Flame; only those with Dragon Bloodline or Physique could possess this power."
"Then, how am I supposed to get it?" Elaine pouted.
"As I said before, there are many Natural Flames. They are divided into three types: Beast Flame, Earth Flame, and Heavenly Flame."
"Beast Flame can be as weak as normal flame, but also as strong as Heavenly Flames. Earth Flames are generally good for talented people."
"But some people can be extremely lucky to get their hands on Heavenly Flame."
"Even so, capturing one Heavenly Flame can be as hard as destroying an entire army of Spiritual Palace Realm cultivators."
"That's just for lower-ranking Heavenly Flames. I have found the location of such flame. It's perfect for you, but we need to wait until our strength reaches that point."
"Until then, tell no one about this information, okay? No one!"
Hearing that, Elaine heavily gulped. Even if she did tell someone, nobody could get such a flame, right?
At least, she hadn't seen anyone above Foundation Realm in this kingdom.
Because her knowledge had always been restricted, she didn't know just how strong people could become.
Still, she nodded her head and said.
"Yeah, I will not tell anyone. But how are we supposed to get such a flame? This is an impossible task."
Ken chuckled and said.
"Not so impossible in the future. Don't worry! After this Annual Competition, you will focus on reaching the Qi Condensation Realm."
"Then, you should focus on the Alchemy. I will teach you the basics."
Knowing that Ken could make pills like those from before, she didn't reject his idea.
She knew her talent was limited. While her thinking was confined by the power of the kingdom, Ken was already thinking about a step beyond it.
Spiritual Palace Realm! She had never heard of someone reaching that realm before.
It was an impossible task, but Ken was so confident in himself that he didn't think he would fail.
"Alright, you take some rest and we will continue our training."
Elaine sat cross-legged and started recovering her Qi. While she was doing that, Ken waited.
After thirty minutes, she was ready.
So, they sparred. Their battle was mostly Ken teaching her how to utilize the fire element for offense, increasing its temperature.
He was helping her grow stronger until it was time to leave the training room.
After leaving this room, they went straight to Elaine's house. As soon as they got there, they hit the shower.
But when they entered the shower naked, Ken and Elaine couldn't hold themselves and fiercely started kissing each other.