My Disciple Is Crazy! Chapter 16: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Xu Kai saw himself through the Driftlight Pupil.

His body stood motionless, eyes closed, right palm still extended from where the eye had lifted. His jaw was set tight. A muscle twitched along his temple.

The perspective was sharper than his own eyes.

Unnaturally so. He could count the individual threads fraying at the shoulder of his robe.

'Of course it's clear,' he thought.

The eye had belonged to sothing high. Sothing far above him.

But this wasn't even the full potential.

He was lesser than the fish, so he couldn't see with its original sight, only a diluted version filtered through his own existence. The true clarity would only unlock when he reached its level. Or surpassed it.

But for now, this was enough.

The world through that single, floating eye was cold. Precise. Every edge outlined, every shadow rendered without rcy.

Xu Kai commanded it to turn.

The thought flickered, barely a whisper in his mind, and the hovering vision obeyed without resistance. The view in his head pivoted smoothly, like turning his own head. Except this was one eye. No blind spot. No peripheral blur. Just a flawless, gliding sweep.

He aid the Pupil at Chen Xi.

She still sat in the chair, back rigid, attention darting between him and the floating eye like she wasn't sure which one to watch. Her fingers had curled around the armrests.

The Driftlight Pupil drifted toward her.

Stopped an arm's length from her face.

Chen Xi stared at it. Her throat moved in a small swallow. She gave him a look 'what am I supposed to do with this?' and leaned back just slightly, her chair creaking.

Xu Kai didn't pull it back. Not yet.

First, he wanted to try sothing. Sothing he'd planned from the start.

He opened his original eyes.

The world rushed in, color, warmth, and he blinked, expecting the blank confusion of switching between two sights. The vertigo of it.

Instead, he saw with both. And the Pupil.

'Three.'

His stomach dropped. He saw the surface, and also saw Chen Xi.

All of it. Simultaneously. No effort to switch, no focus required.

He didn't know how to explain it.

He just saw.

The thrill lasted maybe three breaths.

Then the warning Chen Xi had given him caught up like a fist to the back of the skull.

A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. Then another. His vision swam, not the Pupil's vision, his, and behind his eyes, a deep, bone-aching weariness began to bloom. The kind that didn't just hurt. The kind that pulled.

The artifact was a drain.

Constant. Hungry. Far more demanding than he'd expected.

'Didn't expect this so soon,' he thought, jaw clenching. 'There has to be a way to manage this.'

The original Xu Kai must have had a thod. So technique to maintain the split consciousness longer without buckling under the weight.

He didn't know it.

And he was certain Chen Xi didn't either. If she did, she would have told him.

'Fine. I'll figure it out. Or make my own.'

He exhaled, a shuddering, ragged sound, and sent the final command.

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'Return. Still.'

The Driftlight Pupil drifted from its hover in front of Chen Xi's face, gliding across the space. It settled into his waiting palm, cool and weightless, then went still.

Xu Kai set it carefully on the table. His hand trembled slightly as he pulled back.

Chen Xi was staring at him, expecting him to say sothing. Anything.

He gave her a tired smile.

"I'll have to get used to this." He rolled his shoulder, felt sothing crack. "It's truly sothing else."

She nodded slowly.

"It is." A pause. Her hands ca together in her lap, fingers lacing. "But you'll have to take your ti with it. It's not sothing that can be mastered in a short span."

"Yeah, wasn't planning on rushing it." He sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face. The weariness was already settling into his bones like lead. "But seems like we're going to be really occupied for the next few months."

"Yeah, w—" She stopped. Her fingers went still. "We?"

"Yes, we." He put weight on the word, let it hang.

A beat of silence. Then:

"Uh." She blinked. "What do you an by that, Master?"

"We have a lot to do in three months. Maybe more... let's just go into seclusion."

Chen Xi's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

"Seclusion." He ticked points off on his fingers. "You need to hit rank nine or ten in Qi Condensation. Or just break straight through to Foundation Establishnt if you can manage it." Another finger. "I need to get used to... a lot of things. Very many things." He rubbed his chin, felt the faint rasp of stubble. "But if we go into seclusion, we won't be able to do other stuff."

"It's not like there's anything more important than this right now." He frowned. "Except food."

"Right." He waved a hand. "But food can wait. Cultivators don't need it like mortals do. We can sustain ourselves for weeks, months at least." His frown smoothed into a smile. "That should be enough."

Chen Xi beca background scenery.

She sat there watching Xu Kai as he continued making preparations. Her expression shifted from confusion to mild concern to sothing approaching outright horror.

The horror deepened with each new thing he added to whatever insane plan was crystallizing in his head.

She slowly raised her hand. Like a student afraid to interrupt a lecture.

"Master? Can I—"

Xu Kai stopped. His attention snapped back to her.

"You have sothing to add?"

She nodded.

'Remove actually.'

"Uh." She cleared her throat. "Why am I inside the seclusion plan?"

He looked at her like she'd just asked why water was wet. Like the answer was so obvious it barely deserved words.

"Because it will help you."

Chen Xi shook her head. A strand of hair stuck to her cheek.

"No, no, don't get wrong. I know it would benefit , but..." She pressed her lips together, searching for the right words. "There are other ways around this. I don't actually need to partake." She smiled, trying for casual. "I can achieve it without going into seclusion. Or cultivating every. Single. Minute."

"No."

'Fine.' Her smile tightened. 'I'll just read the books I have. Pass the ti that way.'

"You're not going to be cultivating every minute." Xu Kai bent down and scooped a book off the floor, one of hers. He flipped it forward, backward, like he was weighing it in his hands.

Then he tossed it to her.

Chen Xi fumbled. The book slipped, nearly hit the ground, then she caught it against her chest with both hands.

"You'll just have to put in your all," he continued. "Ti. Effort. Concentration."

He let the pause stretch.

"aning..." He gestured at the book in her arms. "You'll have to do away with that. All of them. For those months. After that, you're free to do whatever you want."

'Say what now?'

"Master." Her voice ca out flat. "I can't do that."

"I'm not forcing you." He shrugged, palms up. "I'm speaking from logic. It's normal for soone in seclusion to do all the things I ntioned."

She gaped at him.

'Normal?'

"Which normal person," she said, each word clipped, "would stay in one place without doing anything except cultivating? I would die. Of boredom. And the fact that I can't taste food?" She pressed a hand to her chest. "That might actually kill poor ."

Xu Kai's expression didn't change.

"With great power cos great responsibility, Xi."

'Did he just—'

"I know! But it's still not fair!"

"Wait." Xu Kai held up a hand. "Have you ever actually entered seclusion? In your life?"

Chen Xi paused.

"No. I haven't."

'Not that surprising,' he thought.

Chen Xi had never struck him as the type would has.

"You never asked to," she pressed. "Not once."

He t her eyes.

"I was seriously pampering you."

Chen Xi's gaze slid away. Her lower lip pushed out, just slightly, just enough to notice. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again.

Nothing ca out.

"Okay." Xu Kai clapped his hands together once. "Let's start on better ground."

He'd observed enough of her by now.

Chen Xi was the 'if it's boring, don't count in' type. Plain and simple. She chased adrenaline, the sharp thrill of sothing dangerous, sothing interesting, sothing worth the effort. Her attention snagged on the edges of risk and reward like a thread catching on splintered wood.

It fit her personality perfectly.

Which was the complete opposite of the original Xu Kai.

So judging from all of that? For soone like Chen Xi, seclusion wasn't just difficult.

It was impossible.

If he tried to force her into cultivating day after day, locked in a room with nothing but ditation and breathing techniques, he'd be the one ready to die from a headache. She'd make sure of it.

He wasn't ready for that. Not even close.

But that didn't an he was giving up on her case. Just...

'Not now.'

"Fine." He let out a breath. "You won't enter seclusion."

Chen Xi's eyes snapped back to him. They were visibly brighter, like soone had struck a match behind her pupils.

"But," He held up a finger. "I'm sure you still rember the condition I set before I agreed to help you get your revenge."

She nodded. Vigorously. Her entire upper body moved with it.

Xu Kai's mouth curved into an amused smile.

"Good, then." He turned. "Wish you luck on it."

He walked out. Didn't look back. Only waved.

For a mont, silence.

Then Chen Xi's legs gave out. She slumped to the ground in a heap, robes pooling around her.

She stared at the ceiling like a woman who'd just dodged the hardest challenge life had ever thrown at her.

"Close," she whispered to no one. "Too close."