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TOSDAG Chapter 18: Experiment
🕑 Added 2025-01-29 14:57:32 +0000 UTCThird Person P.O.V
Once Leek and Huyan Xiong left the City Lord's mansion, Ye Zong and Ye Shuo had a conversation about everything that happened, and they learned.
"What do you think?" Ye Zong asked, looking in the direction where Leek had gone.
"It's pretty crazy, to think that there would be something like a tribe full of people like that kid outside our walls." Ye Shuo replied.
"Does that mean you believe his words?"
"Not completely, it's easy to tell that he's hiding information, but the gist of what he said seems to be true, his people were basically wiped out by that guy, Frieza, and he, in turn, was wiped out by a warrior of his own kind; also, he firmly believes that he is the only Saiyan alive, whether that is good or bad, I cannot say, but there are some things that are certain, his permanent stay can benefit Glory City quite a bit, and when he brings that transport he speaks of perhaps we could check if there is any indication of where his people obtained the knowledge or what part of the divine continent it may come from, I think that after checking it that, the rest will not really matter much"
Ye Zong was silent for a moment while thinking, and after a few more seconds, he nodded in agreement, the most important of all, at least in his opinion, was 2 points.
The first was if he was a member of the dark guild, and the second, if he would bring benefits to Glory City with his presence, and after this conversation, he could say that the answer to the first point was no and to the second was yes, so that was all that mattered.
"Then we just have to wait." Ye Zong said, hoping that the decision he just made was the right one.
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A couple of days later
Third Person P.O.V
Leek was moving back and forth, in his hands were a pair of energy spheres while his feet kicked and blocked blows from seemingly invisible opponents, Leek waved his hands, and the energy spheres flew into the sky, advancing a few dozen meters before exploding, producing a brief flash of light and a couple of small clouds of dust.
Right after that, a pair of voices coming from the nearby bushes caught his attention, Leek didn't need more than a single second before his ki sense made it clear to him who they were, and a second later, Ning'er and Lanruo appeared.
Relaxing and reducing his ki to normal, Leek greeted them with a smile, and they responded in the same way.
"Hey Ning'er, how's everything?" Leek asked, referring to what happened with Shen Fei a few days ago.
Lanruo had told him that she would write her a letter to find out what had happened in Ning'er's family, but just yesterday, when she received the reply letter, Lanruo told him that Xiao Ning'er had asked her not to tell him what happened because she wanted to be the one to tell him.
Aware that Ning'er didn't want to use her as a go-between, but rather wanted to talk to Leek more in an attempt to increase their closeness, Lanruo decided to accept the younger girl's request and let Leek and Ning'er talk calmly.
"Well, my family wasn't too happy about what happened, they even wanted to know who you were, but I told them what happened and refused to reveal anything else to them, as far as they know you were the guest of the Huyan family, and Shen Fei attacked you due to a misunderstanding, and due to the precarious position of my house it was decided that I didn't want to have trouble with the Huyan family, besides, it was because Big Sister Lanruo herself went to see me today that no one in my house dared to stop me from going out"
Listening to her words Lanruo smiled triumphantly and even raised her chest a little, proud to the point where Leek could almost hear her thoughts, and phrases like: "I'm that impressive" or "Come on, praise me" were the ones that were repeated the most.
"Well, if that's like that, it seems that things aren't that serious, right?"
"Well." Ning'er seemed a little worried. "Although my family shouldn't cause trouble for me or the Huyan family, the Sacred Family might trouble you." Leek raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Really?" Leek already knew the status of the Sacred Family and how despicable their actions could be because Ning'er had told him everything she knew about them, such as that they were one of the 3 major families in Glory City, or that it was thanks to them that her family had been forced to bow their heads and marry her with Shen Fei, and even after that Lanruo had told him some things that she also knew about them.
But even after hearing all this Leek didn't think that such an important family would seek revenge against him for something like this, especially considering that he hadn't even thrown a punch, but had taken it and refrained from fighting back.
"You shouldn't underestimate them." Lanruo intervened. "Most of them have the same amount of pride and compassion as Shen Fei"
The message was clear to Leek, the members of that family, at least the most notorious ones, had a lot of pride and no compassion, at least from what he had seen of Shen Fei, after all, when the incident happened the guy looked ready to jump on him with murderous intentions, and Leek was sure that he would have done so if there hadn't been people watching.
"I see, then I will be careful." Leek decided with a nod, it wouldn't hurt to be extra careful, at least until he was sure that he was strong enough.
With that topic off the table, Leek moved on to something he thought was more important. "Now that we finally have the chance, I think we can finally put the method to improve your cultivation into practice. I've been practicing, so I'm more confident now than I was when I told you about it that night"
This seemed to draw the attention of both girls, so Leek quickly added. "Well then, Ning'er, you go first. Since you were able to absorb my energy last time, I think I'll be able to do it more delicately so I don't fly away this time." He said in an amused tone as he recalled what happened.
Ning'er looked a little embarrassed as she recalled what happened, and Lanruo let out a short laugh imagining the situation, she knew that Ning'er would be the first because now that Leek had experience, he would probably be able to keep the energy inside Ning'er from getting out of control, which would help him practice even more for when it was her turn.
"Very well, then let's begin." Leek said, sitting cross-legged on the grass.
Ning'er blushed a little as she looked at Lanruo, who watched the whole process with a smile.
Ning'er had a hard time trying to suppress her embarrassment, it was already difficult not to blush when holding hands with Leek when they were alone, but doing it in front of Lanruo, even more so, being sure that she would take advantage of this to play some pranks on her later, was something difficult to bear.
Leek also noticed this, so he decided to intervene. "Lanruo, I also need you to sit down." The Saiyan said, pointing at the space behind him.
"Eh? Me too?" The pink-haired girl looked confused, but sat down behind Leek anyway.
"Yeah, put your-!!!" Leek was cut off when he felt like an electric current was running through his back, and it took all his effort not to fall forward, but what he couldn't help was the sound of surprise and discomfort he made.
"Eh?" Ning'er and Lanruo were surprised, and when the former looked at the latter, she noticed that the older girl was holding Leek's tail.
"L-let go of m-my tail." Leek said in a weak tone of voice.
"Ah, sorry!" Lanruo immediately let go of the appendage, and Leek was able to breathe calmly again as he sat up straight once more.
"What happened?" Ning'er asked worriedly.
"I was hoping no one would find out." Leek complained while rubbing his butt as if he had been given an injection. "Saiyan tails are especially sensitive, if someone grabs it too tightly we lose all our strength, it is a bit of an embarrassing weak point"
"Really?" Both girls seemed unable to believe that Leek had such a random weakness.
"It is not something impossible to solve, it can be trained until it is as strong as any other part of the body, and in the worst-case scenario I could tear off or cut off my tail, although, of course, it is a bit obvious that it is not the preferred option for anyone, the tail is a very important part for Saiyans, please do not tell anyone about this." Leek explained, and both girls nodded a couple of times, after all, this was not a simple matter, and revealing this weakness would surely bring problems to Leek.
The truth was that just one day after waking up in this body, Leek took his own tail to practice his endurance, and although it was an incredibly painful training, he practiced it whenever he could for at least an hour, it was because of that that he could now even stand while having his tail held, surely he would improve with time, but for the moment that was his limit, so to avoid problems he made sure to always have his tail tightly wrapped around his waist.
"Well, now that that was said and Lanruo has been successfully added to the list of people I will take revenge on in the future, let's get back to what's important." Leek said in a carefree tone.
"Eh? What?" Lanruo opened her eyes and looked a little alarmed, but Leek acted as if he hadn't heard her, and Ning'er for her part, just gave her a sympathetic smile before sitting back down in front of Leek.
Seeing that no one was going to say anything regarding what Leek just said about her, Lanruo pouted and sat back down behind Leek.
"Well, Ning'er, do you remember what your current energy level was?"
The girl took out a soul crystal from her pocket and a moment later it glowed and the girl spoke. "193 Points, I'm pretty close to the second bronze star." She said with a determined expression, tightly gripping the crystal.
"Well, this experiment will be divided into 4 parts for you, and 5 for Lanruo." Leek explained, nodding and stretching out his hands, ready to take Ning'er's.
"Your first part will simply consist of focusing on absorbing my energy, you've done that before unconsciously when I healed you, but that was easier to do because I left two small holes in your energy when I got rid of the energy that was making you sick, this time there will be no void to fill, so we'll have to do it little by little, what I'll do is connect our energies, and then you have to pull mine very slowly, imagine that you're drinking water from a glass very calmly, and as the energy enters you you must make it yours, this way your ki will get stronger by consuming mine, and seeing what happened last time, your soul force should also increase accordingly, don't worry about this hurting me, even if you consumed almost all of my ki, the worst that could happen would be that I would faint, and after a good meal and a night's sleep I would be as good as new." Leek finished explaining, giving as many details as possible.
Ning'er, now completely focused and knowing that this was a serious matter, gulped and nodded, extending her hands and taking his.
Through the contact, Leek felt the trembling in the girl's hands, a sign of her obvious nervousness, so, with their fingers already intertwined, he gave her a gentle squeeze, which caught Ning'er's attention.
"Don't worry, I've practiced a lot these days, everything will be fine, and even if something unexpected happens, I trust my ki control enough to stop everything safely." He said, nodding with a smile.
Ning'er smiled in response before nodding as well, fully trusting her words, she closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths, preparing to begin.
"Good." Leek nodded when he felt the girl's hands stop shaking.
"Now, Lanruo, sit behind me and put your hands on my back, the extra step you will have in addition to Ning'er's own 4 is for you to concentrate on feeling my energy, how I control it, and how the whole absorption process takes place, that way when it's your turn perhaps the experience will be smoother, and the effort required will be less." Leek said.
But what he didn't expect was that when he finished explaining, he felt Lanruo put her hands under his clothes, the soft but cold skin of her palms touched his back, almost making him jump.
Leek turned his head, looking at her, but without saying anything, Lanruo gave him a mischievous smile that screamed revenge for the comment he had made about her earlier, all before speaking in a low voice and with a playful tone. "This way is better, isn't it?" She asked, referring to the skin-to-skin contact.
Leek sighed and made a mental note, reminding himself to be extra mean to her when the time came for revenge, but for the moment, he simply nodded before looking back ahead, taking a few deep breaths before closing his eyes.
He needed to focus on his energy, he felt heat on his back, a sign that Lanruo's soul force was trying to interact with his, but not having even an ounce of soul force, the energy couldn't connect with his, that is unless he moved his own energy, his ki, so he could intertwine it with hers.
But Leek didn't do this, nor did he reject Lanruo's energy, leaving everything in a strange middle ground, using her energy, Lanruo could feel his, but without being able to interact directly with it.
Leek mentally nodded before focusing on Ning'er, having done it before, she already knew that she had to leave a clear path for her energy to connect with his, so that first part was easier than the time he healed her.
And when their energies were intertwined, a semi-transparent trail of light covered the Saiyan's body, however, this was not like the one he used in battle, it was not violent or roared with power, it was calm, rippling like the water in a pond that was occasionally touched by the petal of a flower or a gentle breeze.
Leek took a few more deep breaths, and when he was sure about how controlled and calm his own energy was, he finally spoke, still with his eyes closed. "You can start Ning'er, remember, you don't need to rush, start by doing it slowly, and as you feel it getting easier, you can increase the speed"
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Third Person P.O.V
Ning'er felt like she was drinking a glass of water, but it wasn't just that, it was as if she was a person who had been walking through the desert for an incredibly long time without anything to drink, this was different from how it was the first time she and Leek intertwined their energies.
That time Leek was the one doing all the work, it was as if he was stitching up a wound, she could feel everything he did, but she was a mere spectator of his work, but this time it was she who had to take control of the situation, and she had to be completely honest, Leek's energy was something incredibly different from anything she had ever felt before.
It was as if she was eating a new type of food that she didn't know she could eat, which was not only incredibly delicious, but also made her stronger the more she ate, the problem with all this was that this energy was also incredibly "dense" compared to soul force.
According to Leek's hypothesis, this was because ki, despite being "energy" like soul force, also had a direct correlation with a person's physical capabilities.
Soul force, on the other hand, had a rather minor impact on a person's physique, after all, a demon spiritualist could have a physical rank of two or three bronze stars, and yet their soul force could barely reach the first star.
And even the same could happen the other way around, a demon spiritualist could have a soul force greater than their physical rank, which was quite common among the people of Glory City, with her own father being an example of this, his soul force had long since managed to reach the gold rank, but his physique was still classified as silver.
Because of this, Ning'er felt that if she continued to consume this energy not only would her soul force grow stronger, but her physique would also rise in kind, so she put all her concentration into making this energy that Leek was offering her her own.
She remembered when Leek told her how it felt to heal her, that it was as if he had to use his energy to "melt" the clumps of negative energy that were harming her, in a way, this was similar, but she would make a different comparison.
Her own energy was like water, while Leek's energy was like honey, so in order to fully integrate this energy with her own, she had to "stir" the water until the honey dissolved, but doing so while continuing to consume Leek's energy was proving to be a challenge, even so, Ning'er did not give up, giving anything less than her 100% would be insulting to all those who were willing to help her, and she would rather die than do that.
She would keep the promise she made to her father, and take advantage of the help Leek was giving her thanks to Lanruo urging her to be completely honest with him.
