Jake stared at the intimating, orderly lines of special forces members nervously.
Unlike standing before the faction members as a respected individual, 500 soldiers stared at him with doubtful or mocking expressions.
They all had something that Jake lacked--
--muscles.
Cultivation heals muscles regularly, making them unnaturally toned. However, it doesn't increase their size unless the cultivator uses their body and has a diet that permits it.
Unless, of course, they have a healing technique and purposely shred their muscle fibers.
Since Jake didn't have a healing technique, he was an unnaturally strong, ultra-toned version of himself.
From the soldiers' perspectives, he was still a lanky, well-dressed [pretty boy] wearing glasses.
Guided Arrow relied on a person's eyesight, so they felt he wasn't qualified by default.
It was a terrible first impression.
"Um...." Jake swallowed nervously, taking a deep breath, "So, I'm not good at encouraging faith upfront, but people tell me I'm pretty good at teaching.
Since I look and sound like a weakling, can I show you how far I can bring you with the Guided Arrow technique?"
All the soldiers were bewildered by his feeble entrance and permission to do his job.
After an awkward silence, the soldiers nodded and gave their consent.
Jake made eye contact with Kaze with a wry smile.
"Are you sure you want me to use this technique as a first impression?" He whispered, "I've only practiced it for two hours yesterday."
"You're treating an earth-grade technique like a peak sky-grade cultivation technique." The emperor growled, annoyed that his regent's confidence had abruptly regressed.
"Your eyesight is superhuman, and the technique follows your sight, not your aim.
That unwarranted show of weakness on your face is embarrassing in front of the Malta military."
The regent pushed his fake glasses onto the bridge of his nose awkwardly.
"I've changed so much that it feels like I don't have a personality or identity anymore." Jake said bitterly, "This is the only way I feel comfortable. Can't I keep them?"
"If you wish to build their confidence that they can take your life, do as you wish." Kaze scoff-laughed breathlessly.
"But stop this obnoxious soliloquy, as your display of strength is mandatory and anticipated."
Jake's eyes widened, and he turned back to the special forces members, General Michaels and Kane.
All of them glared at him with malicious smiles that said [the Emperor sent a docile lamb to teach us?] openly.
The emperor's words mirrored his message from the first week he met him.
--June 8th, 2032 | Lamers Park | Day that Jake Got the Sky's Breath Technique--
"You must never show weakness, Jake. If you do, people will constantly challenge you, trying to use, abuse, or kill you for their gain.
People latch onto examples of weakness more than demonstrations of strength.
The number of bodies required to repair the damage from a single showcase of weakness would shock you."
--
Now that Jake understood how dangerous the world was, it finally sunk in that five hundred people would fight him without question.
That confidence would continue until there were enough deaths to reach all of them and explain that the first few weren't flukes.
Jake's heart pulsed, fearful of consequences for himself, Veronica, and Kaze.
He closed his eyes, opened them with a composed gaze, and gave everyone a mocking smile.
"Lesson one: the world has changed." Jake said calmly, "Judging one's appearance or demeanor will get you killed."
A wave of shock rippled through the ranks when his countenance shifted. It even reached General Michaels and Kane.
Only the emperor and his elites weren't shocked by his strange confidence.
"Observe." He requested, taking off his fake glasses and holding them in his right hand.
CrRuunnNCH!
Everyone's eyes widened in shock when they didn't hear the sound of shattering glass. Instead, they stared at a broken frame and bent plastic lenses.
"You're confident in your eyes, right?" Jake asked calmly, "If you judged me for using an eyesight-based technique with glasses, why didn't you notice these glasses had no curve?"
Dead silence.
Everyone was floored, including most of the Lockheed elites who didn't know his glasses were fake.
"Cultivation is misleading." Jake asserted straightly, "I look weak, and compared to Kaze, I am.
So my greatest strength is convincing people that I'm weak so they underestimate me, get overconfident, and become sloppy. Then--"
Jake turned around and waved his hand from the side to his front, creating a beautiful arc of warping space.
It started like the slashing technique but snapped into a five-foot straight line in front of him.
When he locked his eyes on the weakly fortified mannequin, he waved his hand to his side again with lightning speed.
Whoooooooosh!
CraaaCKaahckCrracckCracCKckaack!
BOOM! Boom, boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom... boom.
The arrow shattered the weak barrier, making the target explode.
Then it continued forward, cutting through trees so quickly that there were a dozen cracking noses before the trees hit the ground. Finally--
BOOOOOOM!
--the Qi arrow slammed into a natural rock barrier hiding the faction half a mile away.
A mushroom cloud of dust and debris exploded in the skies over the sea of trees.
It was surreal to watch.
The emperor turned to his regent with a mysterious smile, impressed he had flipped his reputation so thoroughly, and then turned back to the soldiers.
Jake followed Kaze's gaze and found a thousand special forces members staring at him in silent shock.
That included Kane and General Michaels.
He panned his gaze and found the elites in the same boat.
Aside from the managers, only Kiera, watching from a table with her chin on her palm, was unimpressed.
He was grateful to see the woman's demeaning countenance, as it reminded him that he still had much to do.
"In case anyone's wondering." Jake said calmly, "Yes, this is Guided Arrow.
All of you seemed confident that you could cultivate and use this technique five minutes ago.
However, now you can see you can do neither."
The special forces members were shocked-speechless.
His power was overwhelming, and no one questioned whether they could compare, but his offensive [blind] declaration that they couldn't cultivate [at all] made their blood boil.
Many openly wore scowls.
"Hmmm. It seems that you still don't understand." Jake declared chillingly.
"How many of your comrades will die encountering someone like me because you refused to tame your overconfidence and continued to underestimate me?"
Kaze was pleasantly surprised by his regent, but everyone aside from Kiera and the managers felt a wave of anxiety and fear wash over them.
It wasn't the words he said or how he spoke them that sent icy chills crawling down most people's spines.
The chilling part was that he made the declaration before half a thousand of Malta's elites and didn't claim he could kill anyone one-on-one.
Instead, he asked how many people would die in an [avoidable] surprise attack of that caliber.
A dozen? Fifty? One hundred? It left them shuddering.
"I'm telling you that you can't cultivate because I can [see] that you can't cultivate." Jake explained straightly, "That's the difference between us.
The world is in a dangerous state of chaos, and we no longer have the luxury of underestimating people.
So you must approach all people cautiously until you can tell the power between each other."
After thoroughly driving in his point, he scanned everyone's humiliated faces.
"Why are you all so dejected?" He chuckled half-heartedly, "You're here to learn, right?
You just had a great learning experience. Now you're ready to have more from the correct mindset."
The intense atmosphere abruptly lifted after hearing his statements.
Jake broke them down, and now he was ready to teach and build them up.
However, the emperor wasn't so kind.
"Excellent point." Kaze affirmed in a strange tone, turning to the special forces members with a sinister smile.
Kane knew that smile well and immediately regretted not warning his soldiers about the emperor's shrewdness.
He explained the man had unfathomable power, and he demanded respect. However, he naturally didn't disclose his intelligence or talent for savage ridicule.
"Everyone here scoffed when I said I'd teach military tactics to special forces members." Kaze smiled malevolently.
"After all, you're elite special forces members, and we're a bunch of kids. Yes?"
The soldiers averted their gazes.
Even though they were humiliated by Jake's demonstration of power, there was a vast difference between hidden raw strength and years of training and experience.
"You all have distinguished records and have been deemed capable of fighting the top operatives worldwide, so it's okay to feel that way." The emperor reasoned, "If...."
Everyone turned to him, prepared to hear the catch.
"You can win against a nineteen-year-old tennis player without combat experience prior to the first Qi influx--using any combat tactic." Kaze grinned ominously.
Evalyn walked into view from behind the prep building on cue.
The moment the elites saw her, excited whispers exploded among them.
They didn't know anything about Evalyn other than [Kaze Lexicon] choosing her as a partner--and her cultivation breathing, which was a network of unrestrained blackholes.
No one needed to see her breathing; standing beside her felt suffocating.
However, the soldiers couldn't see her breathing or feel her in the open air.
The beautiful tennis star walked up wearing the same outfit she wore the day Kaze met her.
She wore a loose white shirt, black leggings, and pristine white shoes.
In all ways, she was identical to the popular woman that stole the show at Lockheed University--
--aside from lacking her famous, friendly white smile.
Only one word summed up the challenge Kaze gave to the special forces members: offensive.
At least they'd think that if they didn't watch a lanky teen destroy a rockface. Moreover--
"I'll give a sky-grade cultivation technique to anyone that can land a single blow on her in the next hour." Kaze announced mockingly, "I am not using a figure of speech.
The offer is open to anyone at Immortal Skye, and there are no limits on how many people can earn the technique."
Kane's jaw dropped when he heard the offering.
While the soldiers and Lockheed elites rallied their spirits, the agent was sweating.
Naturally, having his soldiers get the sky technique would be ideal for his department, far better than enjoying the power alone.
However, nothing that Kaze Lexicon did could qualify as benign.
That meant one thing--the public shaming was about to evolve into an irreparable mass humiliation.
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