This is bullshit. Lucia’s bodyguard is obviously biased against me. Unfortunately, I’m too weak to call out her actions. She tempted me with an increase in cultivation, but she had no intentions of giving it to me. Her so-called escape technique doesn’t have much to do with escaping. Leaving a shell of myself behind is great and all, but doing that doesn’t improve my speed or shift me away from danger; obviously, I’m going to get hit by the giant stick! I could barely outrun it before, and with the added pressure that I have to use a spiritual-energy shell to evade, there’s not enough time to for me to escape the stick’s attack range. As I’ve decided before I was influenced by the feebleminded soul suppressed in my body, I’m going to lie here and not take part in this training exercise anymore. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve had a lot of experience with playing dead in the past; after all, there’s no point in fighting a fight I can’t win.

“It looks like he’s awake,” Lucia’s bodyguard said, seeing through my technique before I could even properly begin. “Let’s give him a second to climb to his feet, and then I’ll teach you two the advanced version of leaping.”

I suppose bad things will happen to me if I don’t climb to my feet, so there’s nothing I can do but comply. Lucia’s bodyguard didn’t look any different, but Lucia looked as if someone had eaten the last slice of acorn pie she was saving for dessert. Was this escape training that difficult for her? I don’t get it; it wasn’t like she was the one being slapped into the ground by the world’s largest flyswatter.

“Lucia, are you listening?”

Lucia stopped staring at the ground and stared at her bodyguard instead. “If I don’t master the squirrel escape technique, I won’t have to learn math, right?”

“If you’re going to learn the escape technique slowly on purpose, I’ll start the math lessons right now,” Lucia’s bodyguard said. After staring at Lucia for a bit, the white-haired woman nodded. “Now, watch me perform the advanced version of leap.”

The white-haired woman dropped onto all fours, and a layer of spiritual energy appeared over her body. Instead of her body leaving the spiritual energy like it did during zig and zag, the spiritual energy formed a shell and leapt away from her. A golden arc made of spiritual energy was left in the air as her spiritual energy jumped and landed on the ground several meters ahead of her. Then, the white-haired woman vanished, reappearing at the spot where her spiritual-energy shell had landed. Needless to say, it was a bit underwhelming.

Evidently, Lucia had the same thought as me. “That’s it?” she asked. “What’s the difference between doing that and just leaping normally?”

A small smile appeared on Lucia’s bodyguard’s face. “The difference is this,” she said. A brilliant golden light assaulted my eyes as dozens of spiritual-energy shells left her body at once, each of them leaping in different directions and at different heights. Some even went and dug underground, leaving gaping, glowing holes behind. Then, the white-haired woman vanished and reappeared where one of her spiritual-energy shells had stopped. She was only there for a second before disappearing again, reappearing in midair where one of the spiritual-energy shells had passed by. She vanished once more and appeared next to Lucia in the spiritual-energy shell that had gone in her direction. Now it was looking more like a proper escape technique.

Lucia scratched her head. “Isn’t that just teleporting around?”

“In a sense,” the white-haired woman said. “But by leaping with your spiritual energy first, you create a space of your own that you can teleport through. Most immortal techniques lock the space around you, preventing you from teleporting. In a sense, leaping is a technique meant to break space-locking techniques.” The white-haired woman patted Lucia’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll teach you space-locking techniques after a few math lessons.”

“How about you teach me those space techniques first?” Lucia asked. “I think those are more useful than math, right? Immortals rely on space-locking to defeat people, yeah? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone defeated by math before.”

“We’ll see,” Lucia’s bodyguard said and grinned. “But first, try projecting your spiritual energy outwards. Once you’ve got the hang of it, I’ll activate my space-locking technique.”

Projecting spiritual energy is one of the simplest applications of using one’s spiritual energy aside from storing it within one’s body to accumulate strength. Nearly every form of long-ranged attack is projection of spiritual energy. The concept behind leaping is extremely simple, but perhaps that’s what makes it so effective. Who said techniques had to be complicated to be strong?

“Mm?” Lucia tilted her head. Golden tendrils of spiritual energy were created by multiple shells of herself leaping outwards. “Isn’t this like … really easy? This is so much easier than zigging and zagging! It’s like making noodles. My spiritual energy is the dough, and if I want to extend it, all I have to do is roll it around.”

How are all these techniques related to making noodles? Is this something I should be investigating? Do cooks have an inherent advantage when it comes to comprehending techniques involving spiritual energy?

“It seems like you both got the basic concept down already,” Lucia’s bodyguard said and blinked. Perhaps even she didn’t expect Lucia to master this one so quickly. “I’ll apply some pressure with my space-locking technique.” After she finished saying the last word, the spiritual energy tunnels Lucia and I had left behind were instantly shattered and dissipated.

“Ah! My noodles!” Lucia shouted. A furrow appeared on her brow, and her body shone with a golden light. A spiritual-energy shell of herself leapt out and … landed one foot away from her original spot. Lucia blinked and looked at her bodyguard. “Why is this so hard now?”

“Because the dough I’m using is tougher than the one you’re using.”

Again with the food references? I possessed this man who’s been raised in the Blazing Sun Sect, but he has no memories of culinary courses either. Maybe Senior Mu knows how to cook; that’d explain her freakish abilities.