Pain

Edrick was led into another room, and quickly understood what the purpose of all these candles and censers was, this room reeked of a metallic smell Anoteros enjoyed oh so much, clearly, many people had been made to bleed in this room, there was even a chair with the marks of someone's, or perhaps multiple people's- Nails having dug into the wood and thus inadvertently stabbed themselves with the splinters.

"Alright, we wouldn't want to ruin your clothes, so take them off" as she said this, she strolled over to a few cabinets and closets in a most jolly fashion, it was filled with many intricate tools, pills, vials and the likes, putting various of each on a cart, she came and handed Edrick something to tie around his waist, once it was put on, she tilted her head and emitted a low 'mmh' sound.

"Welp, I am not sure whether I should say that you wives are very lucky, or severely unlucky ladies… I should have something larger than this to cover it up…" very nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

"And there! Is it not a bit annoying to have this thing flapping around constantly? Do you tuck it somewhere or something?"

"I just wear pants that are ample enough, otherwise it is rather difficult, yes"

Whilst casually discussing, Ku Xing grabbed a small dagger and inspected its edge.

"Present your right palm to me" she said, and Edrick did so, the dagger being stabbed right through, the elder blinking a few times as Anoteros did move, twitch or make a sound at that.

"Do you feel it?"

"Yes"

"Does it hurt?"

"It does"

"But you aren't reacting"

"That would be superfluous"

"Would it?" Ku Xing twisted the dagger around but got no reaction from Edrick again, as a member of the Xing family, she had access, and had extensively practiced the Pain Sutra, and she could clearly see through her eyes that this was definitely hurting like hell, Anoteros was definitely feeling it, he could see it, he just was not showing the typical reaction to getting stabbed.

'Impressive!' usually, the disciple would already be rolling around in agony or at least be screaming like a hundred roosters in the morning, no blood seeping from the gaping wound however, even as she removed the blade, another quirk of having practised the Pain Sutra extensively.

As the name suggested, its purpose was to inflict suffering and agony, which could not be done if your victim was passing out or dying due to blood loss.

"By the way, I didn't bother to check ahead of time…" she stabbed him in the thigh "...But are any of your two wives from prominent families or something? I feel like you got them after being sent away, since, surely, I would have been invited to the marriages otherwise, right?"

After pulling the dagger out, she shoved her fingers into the wound.

"I did indeed find them both after being exiled, well, I found my first wife there, my second wife is actually the servant that's been accompanying me since I can remember"

Ku Xing raised an eyebrow, all the while slashing at his chest, Edrick was still impassive, not even a trace of an issue could be found even when he was speaking, could she not tell that it was hurting, she really would have imagined that his pain receptors just didn't work.

"Your servant? But I thought your 'maid' had turned out to be a boy?" she questioned, casually pulling out a piece of iron from a jar, the water, or whatever liquid it might be, was clearly boiling and the iron was glowing awfully bright, but the elder held it with her bare hands like it normal, pushing it against Edrick's flesh, which quickly began sizzling and bubbling under the extreme heat.

Once again, to no obvious effect, the pain was clearly gruelling, but the young man stayed composed and even smiled as he responded.

"Indeed"

"Huh… You do whatever you want, but do be careful, many will definitely see this as a tool to mock you" she advised, leaving the piece of iron melded with Anoteros's flesh.

"In any case, I don't usually get that far with those who try to be my disciples, you know? Clearly, you don't seem to mind suffering, which is impressive, even I wasn't so calm my first view times"

"You see, in the Xing household, pain and torture are a way of life, one can not properly inflict pain without experiencing it firsthand, the Pain Sutra isn't only about inflicted, but receiving, clearly, you've definitely got that second part down already- Though, it is a shame that you aren't a Xing, it can not be taught to outsiders, even to my godson"

She made some casual explanations whilst cutting and slicing into Edrick, unearthing one of his nerves and pulling on it like she was playing tug of war, obviously, she didn't actually use her full strength, but the force was still strong enough to make most people blind for a second with the pain, Edrick did in fact feel his senses be overwhelmed, but once again, showed no reaction anyways.

Truly, he had to admit that even with what little she had done so far, Ku Xing was a real professional, he would even dare acknowledge that she was better than him at inflicting torture.

"However, that restriction only applies to the sutra in full and to certain parts of it, and the fact that you are my godson and an Elt should make you eligible to learning those at least, I don't know these in particular are authorised, they are some of the best parts of that thing, in my opinion" she put down the dagger and instead grabbed a small vial, poured a drop on a piece of cotton and tapped it over every places she had inflicted damage.

Peeling the piece of iron off and such, every single wound was gone in the blink of an eye.

"The Pain Sutra also has plenty of medicinal and healing texts, but those are irrelevant, they are restricted learning even within the family until a certain level… Though, if you were willing to try, my sister, who is the matriarch, has a granddaughter that is about your age, a little bit older I believe, if you could charm her and put a ring on her, you would absolutely have access to the sutra in full"

"You can put your clothes back on, by the way, exceptional performance, would you mind letting me train my techniques on you? I'll make it worthwhile"

"Sure, learning to endure pain is important"

"Good mindset! But I'll be teaching you other things as well… When do you plan to start cultivating? What technique will you start with? I can best teach you how to wield a few sorts of whips and how to shoot a longbow as far as weapon handling goes…"

"...Make sure to come at the same time on every Mekenag, Vekenag, Sakenag and Dikenag, we'll spend our time together as efficiently as possible before another one of the elders takes over… You are sort of a celebrity, Zixu"

The first meeting with Ku Xing was rather good, it was mostly spent discussing and testing his resistance to pain, but it did last a few hours.

'Mekenag, Vekenag, Sakenag, Dikenag… So, wednesday, friday, saturday and sunday…'

So the next lesson would be in three days.

Apart from this, his routine should stay unchanged, he would wake up by train, go visit Hui in the library, train some more and then either focus on reading and learning or do whatever else seemed good.

'Mmh… She sleeps in that backroom of hers, doesn't she?' getting tortured by an expert had made somewhat excited, and since she was in consideration for a promotion as one of his wives, he might as well go and run some more tests whilst he was at it.

There was also still some time before the month timer for the system quest concluded, doing it some more could not hurt the rating.