Chapter 53: Teaching

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"What? Are our powers really the same? I can't levitate people though…"

Sue was honestly puzzled by what Edward was saying.

So he explained, "We use our powers differently, that is all. I can't use my Spiritual Energy like you do because mine isn't strong enough to do what you do, and you can't do what I do because of your body."

"My body? What's wrong with my body?" As she asked that, Susan couldn't help but remember Malice, and her outfit. To think he had seen her like that, she felt like burying herself in the desert. Not even invisibility was useful to hide herself after all.

Edward ignored her embarrassment and asked, "How do you think I got my powers?"

Susan shrugged, "You are a mutant? Or a mutate? Or an alien?"

"None of those. I am a normal human. As normal as everyone in the streets below us."

Sue doubted, "I'm pretty sure none of the people below can teleport and fight against Super Skrull."

Edward smirked, "What I achieved, anyone can achieve, with enough talent and hard-work. Theoretically."

"Theoretically?"

Edward nodded, "Yes. My power comes from several sources. First are my artefacts, such as the armor, my sword and my ring. One protects me, one can cut through basically anything and the last one can create the portals. None of those items use my power, and they could be used by basically any human.

"They all are magical artefacts, and one needs to know the basics of magic to use the ring, but magic isn't the cryptic art people think it is, it can actually be mastered by any human, and for that there is almost no limit for talent. If you picked up magic, I believe you would be able to master the ability to create portals with a Sling Ring like me in a week, tops."

Susan questioned, "Are you telling me that any human on Earth could master the ability to teleport in only a week?"

Edward shrugged, "Well, not exactly. They would need a Sling Ring first, and there is a finite quantity of them. And most people would take much more than a week to learn this, I was talking about you. Your strong Spiritual Energy should help you learn more easily.

"Back to the subject, my second power source is magic, which as I said everyone can use. I don't really use it for combat, but I learned all the languages on Earth thanks to it, as well as some others like Skrull."

"Magic can do that?"

"Nothing is impossible. I also have a third source of power, the most important one, and the subject of our suggestion, myself."

"Narcissist much."

Edward chuckled, "I mean, my body and my mind. I have learned through martial arts to strengthen my Chi, which in turn allowed my body to grow stronger. With more experience, I also managed to awaken my spirit, granting me access to Spiritual Energy. You, in turn, have awakened your spirit, but not strengthened your spirit."

Susan tilted her head, "And that's a problem?"

"A big one. As far as I know, all the best martial artists in the world who cultivated Chi are stuck on something called the human limit, or mortal limit. Reaching this limit means having strengthened one's Chi enough to strengthen their body to the limit of a human's body, much like the Super Soldier Serum Captain America ingested.

"Recently, I managed to break through this limit, awakening my spirit, granting me great power. But tell me, do you have any idea why no one else awakened their spirit?"

Susan shook her head, and Edward said, "For the same reason you cannot use all of your body's strength, because it would hurt you. Your brains puts limits onto you so you won't get hurt by your strength. You can't awaken your spirit because it would hurt your body."

"But I did, and I didn't strengthen my body."

"Exactly my point. Your spirit was forcefully awakened, but your body cannot support it. I can't really explain how for now, but it somehow manages to not hurt your body in normal circumstances. However, once you use your power, you will immediately start to feel a strain, and like last Friday, if you go too far then you can even get into a coma because of it."

Susan was starting to get scared now, "Am I going to die?"

Edward shook his head, "No, of course no. But your weak body limits your power, and hurts you. Actually, I think a large part of your Spiritual Energy is protecting your body from itself, hence why your forcefields are so weak and uncreative. If you had full control over your Spiritual Energy, you would die in less than a minute, but I think you would be able to flatten this city in less time than that."

Susan gaped at that, imagining herself standing over New York, crushing the city with a forcefield… That was scary. Feeling her distress, he added "Or protect it from a nuclear bomb." Instantly, she felt better.

Edward asked, "Have you ever meditated before?"

Susan broke out of her reverie and nodded, so he explained, "Good. If you are willing, then you will learn cultivation from me from now on. Not only will your body get strengthened, you will also learn to master your power and use it for longer periods of time. So, what do you think?"

Sue pondered on the question, weighing the pros and cons, and as she realized all the cons she could find were silly, she decided to accept.

Edward smiled at that, and had her sit down in front of him as they entered meditation together. The barrier surrounding them was dispelled as Susan lost her concentration, but it did not matter as the two entered meditation.

Edward was holding her hands as he infused some of his spiritual energy within her body. He didn't use any Chi as he was scared it would hurt her instead, and only started guiding her with his spiritual energy.

Back when he learned Chi Cultivation from Dragon, Dragon could only give him oral guidance, and he had to figure most things by himself. Thanks to Edward's Spiritual Energy, he could teach Sue much more efficiently as he manipulated her Chi.

He first activated it before circulating it through her meridians. It felt very strange to feel the insides of someone else's, as he was used to his own body. In comparison to his Chi, which was in it's purest form, and his body which had been purified by it, Susan's body and Chi looked dirty.

His Spiritual Sense was actually feeling some rejection as it touched the dirty Chi, but he ignored the feeling and instead used his greater mastery to use the Chi available in the best way possible.

Just as he had to figure things by himself when he learned cultivation orally, he also had to cultivate by himself. And back then, the only way he had to circulate his Chi was to use his body, which was quite terrible. A lot of Chi was wasted, and the body wasn't refined in the best way possible, far from that.

Now that he was in control though, not a single bit of Chi was wasted, making those ten minutes of meditation worth weeks of normal cultivation.

As they finished, Edward took out several box of noodles and ordered, "You are to eat these for all your meals from now on, Chi is regenerated through eating and breathing, and those noodles are especially efficient. I will see you again next week, I will open a portal at the same time and day in Baxter Building."

As he said that, he opened a portal, leading to the Baxter Building. Susan took the boxes of the noodles, and thanked him, "Thank you for… everything. Have a good day, teacher."

She then walked to the portal under his gaze, and stopped right before answering, asking, "I heard you beat Super Skrull… Can I get as strong as you?"

Edward smirked at that, "Of course, and you will most certainly go even beyond my current strength if you put in the effort. However, I will continue getting stronger myself, so good luck catching up to me."

Susan smiled, and walked to the other side of the portal,

Before closing it though, he added, "You can share them with the other, they should like them. Especially Ben."

Susan nodded, not thinking much about it as the portal closed behind her. What she didn't know was that the noodles were much more expensive than she thought.

Edward had learned the recipe from Dragon, and added his touch to it, that is purifying it and strengthening the Chi in it. It made the noodles much more nutritious and would help clean the body. It would make for a satisfying meal and one could eat as many as they wanted without getting fat.

To make them even better he would have to own his own farm and grow the crops by himself, feeding them Chi every day as they grew, but that was too much work to be worth it. The noodles were fine as they were right now.

He couldn't really put a price on them as his Chi was unique and he didn't sell them, and it wouldn't interest average people much, but he believed it could be priced several hundred dollars for a martial artist.

For a normal person, it would be nothing more than a mean to lose weight easily… well, with how important appearance became nowadays he actually might sell it hundreds of dollars a box too if the effects are proven to be true…

But while it would be fun to change career and start selling noodles, it was only a passing thought. With this job done, he opened a portal back home.