After lunch, Kai felt his energy return, and his body felt refreshed more than usual. Then he found out from Ao that all ingredients of the meal he ate earlier were grown in the Castle's garden, in a place with abundant Nature power.
Rena had told him that plants that were grown in a place filled with Nature power tended to have a good effect on the body. Such as the tea in Spirit Foxes' temple that calmed his mind.
That helped him recover the stamina he lost when training with Panlong.
Sitting on a bench at the Castle's garden, he was waiting for Qianlong to fetch him to the next training area. He still didn't know which room was in the Dragon King Castle. So he was instructed to wait instead of searching the room by himself and got lost in the process.
Thanks to that, he found something interesting.
"We are underwater. How?"
Looking up at the sky, Kai saw water and some fish swimming outside. A dome-shaped barrier surrounded this Castle, which protected this Castle from the water.
How deep was the Castle located; How could sunlight reach this place; How could a plant could survive in this condition; all of that was a mystery to him.
Maybe a technique or a Talisman allowed something like this to exist. Unfortunately, his knowledge about the Supernatural World was just lacking.
"Good afternoon, lord. Forgive me for making you wait for too long."
When he enjoyed the sight of various kinds of fish swimming outside the barrier, a voice called out to him. He turned around and saw Qianlong walking toward him with graceful movement. Her braided hair moved left and right as she stopped in front of him.
The leader of the blue dragon's face was half-covered by the fan she held. Her eyes looked like they were closed, but they were actually open.
Seeing that his third teacher had arrived, he stood up and smiled.
"Don't worry about it. I am also enjoying the sight."
"That's great." Qianlong replied, tilting her head slightly.
Kai was unable to perceive even a single emotion from her now. It was still, like water in a pond. There could be a few ripples when something disturbed her, but her emotion was flat and undetected in the usual situation.
"Well then, my lord. Shall we go to the library?"
"Yeah. After you."
"Fufufu. Please, this way." Qianlong gestured to him to follow politely and began to walk to the Castle.
***
The library of the Dragon King Castle was massive.
It was located in a different building from the Castle itself. Calling it a building might be a bit wrong.
The library was in a tower. The entire tower was a library filled with bookshelves and brimming with books. At least this should be called a grand library.
There were a total of 8 floors and an attic. The most common and new books could be found on the first floor, and from the second floor to eight, only people with the permission of the Dragon King or the leader of factions could enter.
As for the attic, only the Dragon King and Qianlong were allowed to enter. Because Kai was the Dragon King's husband, he was also allowed to enter, making him the third person who could enter the place filled with forbidden tomes and scrolls.
The books in the attic weren't as many as on the first to the eighth floor. There were candlelights that lit the attic, lighting the dark room with a dim orange light.
In the middle of the attic were a small table and two chairs. Kai and Qianlong were sitting at that place.
"Well then, my lord. I've been given the honor to give you mental training by my King. The details were already explained to me."
Qianlong spoke as she took out a round thing, like a bowl. When she opened the lid, Kai noticed it was filled with incense.
"I will try my best to help you, but I only know one way to overcome trauma. Please forgive me for being blunt. From what my King had told me, you're afraid of your hated enemy due to childhood memories?"
"I don't know," Kai replied honestly. He didn't know whether he was afraid of that creature or not because he had never felt afraid of someone except for his grandfather before. "But I lost myself when I saw that creature use my father's face."
"Interesting. So not fear but immense hate? No, both, huh? You used your rampage as a defense mechanism to cope with your fear." Qianlong mumbled to herself, analyzing what Kai had told her. Then she closed her fan, grinning widely.
"Alright, let's do this. My lord, this might be a bit hard for you, but please defeat your opponent." She said, lighting the incense with a match she took out from her sleeve. She closed the lid and continued. "If you aren't able to defeat it, you will be trapped there forever."
"Huh?" Kai was a bit confused by her words.
Then he realized that his head felt heavy as he inhaled the smoke from the incense. His vision was spinning, and he felt weak.
He tried to fight it, holding onto the table with his hand, and looked at the incense burner while trying to stay awake.
"T-That's… P-Poison?"
"Indeed." Qianlong's voice echoed in his ear. "This is the only way I can use my ability on you. Sleep tight, my lord. I hope you can defeat your biggest fear. That way…"
His body felt weaker and weaker. Even Qianlong's voice couldn't be heard. Finally, the arms that he used to support his body gave up, and his head hit the table with a loud thud.
However, his eyes weren't fully closed yet. He hadn't heard any explanation of what the mental training was! How could he defeat whatever it was or know what he should do without any explanation or instruction?
But finally, even his eyelids gave up, and he fell unconscious.
"Phew…" A sigh could be heard from Qianlong's lips as she leaned back against the chair's backrest. "That was hard. As expected from my lord." She had a happy smile on her face as her Spirit Power slowly leaked out of her body.
It then covered Kai's whole body, wrapping him like a layer of armor. Her Spirit Power was like water, calm and serene, instead of whipping around like flame.
Looking at the man who fell unconscious in front of her, Qianlong let out a low chuckle.
"Fufufu, my King really has no mercy even on her husband. Was it confidence? Did she ask me to do this because she trusted him? Or was she had no mercy at all? Anyway, to think she wanted me to show his trauma with my illusion. I even need to use this sleeping incense to make him fall asleep. What a strong man."
As a blue dragon, Qianlong governed over water and, by extension, mist. As a dragon, the poison also didn't work on her. Her body naturally filtered the harmful substance and purified it.
Using her Spirit Power, she could show someone an illusion. It worked best when her target was unconscious, and that was what she did right now.
"My lord." She called out to the man she called lord and put her hand on his head. "My King has put her trust in you. So you better succeed in overcoming your trauma even if you need to die many times to do that so you can use your full power and not hold back unconsciously."
Retracting her hand, Qianlong opened her fan and frowned.
"And maybe… your trauma isn't what we think it is."
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