Chapter 476: Teaching and Mutation

The Korin Plains.

Fwoosh!

A pillar of orange-red flame, as thick as a wrist, descended from the sky.

It landed on a tall beast-plague patient wandering below, and a great wailing rose up.

Skin, flesh, and bone melted at speed; in the blink of an eye, a great hole was burned clean through his chest.

Rod closed his five fingers together, snuffing out the wisp of blue smoke left on his palm after casting the flame ray.

"Not bad in power, and it's the kind that adjusts its strength based on the quantity and quality of spiritual energy output."

Cambion Boden's spell notes contained very detailed records and discussions of this spiritual art.

They also developed a sacrificial usage with a very Infernal style.

That is, sacrificing a part of the body to enhance the ray's power; the highest level was the eye sacrifice mentioned before.

"Oh! Mr. Rod is amazing!"

Under the effect of 【Group Flight】 within the Crystal Swan.

Circling in the sky alongside him, Scythia clapped and said.

Rod was always rather gentle with this friend's disciple, and laughed: "Your turn. I already taught you just now."

Scythia nodded, a little nervous.

Then she held her breath for five minutes, and only managed to release a small spark from her palm.

Before Rod could even start laughing, she was already so embarrassed she couldn't face anyone.

Her youthful, tender pretty face smiled awkwardly, and the pair of demon horns nestled in her black hair, not very conspicuous, faintly flushed red as well.

"Sorry, Mr. Rod, I've always been not very good at learning spiritual arts."

Even in winter, Scythia didn't really dress that thickly.

Her upper body was a silver light armor full of scars, only covering the front of her chest, her abdomen, and her arms.

Inside was a black high-necked bodysuit, wrapping the muscles to prevent strain, and—

It also had a shaping effect, tightly cinching her firm waist and abdomen into a curve.

Her lower body, on the other hand, was a departure from the norm.

She wore only a pair of black shorts with heavy coverage; her straight arms of faintly reddish skin were exposed to the air, with smooth, flowing muscle lines.

She was not the frail type, possessing the unique fleshiness, health, and wildness of adolescence.

Rod raised an eyebrow.

He couldn't help feeling she looked a bit like a fairly pretty athletic senior he'd seen on the high-school field in his previous life.

"Old method. I'll help smooth out your spiritual energy and walk you through it."

He had taught the tiefling girl this way before.

And back then he'd steadied her thighs to help adjust her spiritual energy—doing that to an adolescent girl was, admittedly, a bit of sexual harassment.

So this time Rod made a firm resolution, deciding he would not touch her thighs again.

"…Okay."

Scythia secretly clenched her fist.

Applying the antiperspirant one more time was the right call!

Of course she remembered that lesson, and she still remembered the scorching temperature of Rod's palm; that night she couldn't sleep the whole night through, and only after tossing about by herself for quite a while and exhausting herself did she finally rest.

As they spoke—

Rod had already come up behind the girl, his right hand resting on her shoulder.

He thought about it, and couldn't help it.

He still placed his left hand on her side; even through the black bodysuit, he could feel the tiefling's rather high body temperature.

"Mm~"

Scythia's body trembled slightly.

"Ah, sorry."

"N-no, it's fine, I'm just a little ticklish."

She turned her head back; her yellow-black pupils had actually spread a thin layer of mist over them.

"Then I'll begin. Pay attention and follow my spiritual energy."

"Mm, okay."

Five minutes later.

A 【Flame Ray】 was successfully fired off.

And it slightly scorched the chest of a beast-plague patient.

Mm.

For a first use, the power was still pretty decent, he supposed.

Rod struck while the iron was hot.

Even though the girl in front was already panting slightly, he stubbornly used his spiritual energy to guide her into firing it off several more times in a row.

This kind of spiritual art, when fired, wasn't originally something she was doing on her own; using it a few more times could let her body remember the feeling, which would help her master it later.

He didn't stop until her spiritual energy was nearly bottoming out.

"Mr. Rod, too many times… I can't take it anymore…"

Cold sweat beaded on the girl's forehead, a faint smell of sulfur wafting off her, and she said between gasps for breath.

Rod's face darkened.

He didn't dare reply.

He handed over a bottle of Xing De Mo Fa restoration potion.

"Hurry up and recover; you must master this today."

Cecile wailed: "Ahhh—this is too difficult—"

"What are you wailing about? Is this little hardship nothing?"

Though Rod spoke harsh words, he was smiling. "How about it? Do I look like your teacher?"

The girl laughed too, feeling her relationship with this senior grow closer.

"Not really. Teacher Falshard is the type of elegant gentleman; he wouldn't use such a brutal teaching method, not only making me empty my Xing De Mo Fa, but also secretly tickling my sides."

Huh?

He was discovered.

Rod felt a bit awkward in his heart.

Something about the girl's firm abs felt like a sinful temptation, making one unable to resist pinching them.

"It's mainly to cultivate your focus."

He was just about to make an excuse.

【Spider Sense】 detected movement.

Rod's expression instantly turned cold, and he activated 【Insight Demon Eye】.

After sweeping around, he immediately discovered the abnormal camouflage magic hidden beneath the ground.

Firelight rushed toward his face.

A scorching, fierce flame ray had already shot from his palm, charging directly into the earth.

Under the amplification of 【Flame Domain】, the ultra-high-temperature ray pierced through the soil, expanding violently within the earth layers.

Boom! The soil and gravel surged and exploded like a giant wave!

As the rain of dirt fell.

A round pit, red-hot from the high temperature, appeared on the ground.

Cecile, not understanding what was happening, was greatly startled.

She had thought Rod was unhappy with her progress and was going to demonstrate it personally.

She squinted closely.

She discovered a strange, broken thing with a large hole burned through its chest, blasted into the air like a rag.

"What is this?!"

The girl cried out in shock.

It was something composed of two human upper bodies joined together.

Judging by the thick beast fur and sharp fangs and claws on both upper bodies, it was not hard to see that this was a werewolf disease patient.

"Does the werewolf disease mutate??"

Rod's expression changed slightly.

He had originally suspected it was caused by 【Bio-Weaving】, but this thing had absolutely no traces of stitching on its body.

The werewolf disease was originally caused by that so-called Ancient God's blood.

If it really mutated like in the Resident Evil of his past life, that wouldn't be strange.

"Mr. Rod, it's not dead yet!"

That thing had two upper bodies; one side, which Rod had burned a huge hole in, was as dead as dead could be, but the intact side was desperately roaring and crawling toward the two of them.

Cecile's face turned bright red as she fired a small ray.

It hit the thing's face, only burning the skin on its face.

Making it look even more terrifying.

Fortunately, it couldn't fly, only flailing its claws and teeth on the ground.

Rod felt that after one side died, its speed wasn't fast, making it a good practice target.

"Recovered enough? Come, continue."

"Oh."

This time, he did not place his hand on the girl's waist, but merely rested it on her shoulder.

He also moved slightly further away.

"Um... do I smell bad?"

The sensitive Tiefling girl noticed immediately.

Rod paused for a moment.

He leaned in to sniff; the sound of him sniffing made the girl shrink her shoulders in fright: "It's fine, I can smell soap and deodorant."

"Th-then why doesn't Mr. Rod put his hand on my waist?"

Heaven is my witness, I didn't say this.

(End of Chapter)