Neither Zhen Hai or Zhen Liu answered Zhen Yue for a solid six minutes after their initial grunts of pain. They just laid there like dead fishes at a market.
Zhen Yue was tempted to just leave the sorry sad sacks to their respective griping and just go continue training, but she felt compelled to see what had been bothering her normally more energetic cousins. Additionally, she found their current sorry state of being rather hilarious.
"So...you two gonna tell me how long you’ve been , or-"
"Master Zhen Hai has been like that for the past three hours, while Master Zhen Liu has been there for the past two hours and twenty-two minutes."
The provider of this information was none other than Corriandis, a recent hire of Elder Zhen Yan, who had impeccable sense of time, and was currently carrying a tray full of food. Judging from the dishes, he was being called upon by the Patriarch.
"Yeah...," the two sad sacks confirmed.
"Oh. Thank you," Zhen Yue said to Corriandis with a small nod.
"No problem," Corriandis replied as he turned a corner. With the servant now out of sight, Zhen Yue brought her attention back to her cousins.
"You know, you’ll feel better if you talk about whatever is on your respective chests, right?"
"To be fair," Zhen Liu mumbled as he lifted his head to answer, "I’m just physically exhausted. I learned a new trick with my formula that allowed me to use aether arts with my body as opposed to a puppet, turns out I’m not used to it."
Zhen Yue eyes went wide as Zhen Hai turned his head to face his cousin, a shocked look on his face.
"You can use arts without puppets now?! That’s a big deal! Why haven’t you-"
"No no no," Zhen Liu interrupted, "I can’t do it continuously like you guys,{not without some watermelon rinds}. I can only do it in bursts, with some terrible consequences." {Better than blueballs though.}
Zhen Liu was partially telling the truth on this point.
Turns out his new [Possession] ability, while surprisingly powerful, had a pretty bad drawback.
For every one minute he was in the possession state, he and the kaijin who possessed him had to run on ten percent power for three minutes after the possession ended. Such an ability was fine in short bursts, but wars of attrition would end badly. And like the world’s most brilliant dumbass, Zhen Liu decided to figure out the maximum amount of time by maintaining the state as long as possible. Turns out his limit was about ninety minutes give or take.
[Milord...my everything still hurts...]
’It’s cool Nepherage, help is on its way.’{With lubricant.}
"I also can’t feel my legs, but on the plus side, I can still use my other puppets to do things while the one I worked with is on cool down mode. I sent them with Jin Fang to go get me some medicine," Zhen Liu explained further, "See if if it helps speed up the healing process."
The voice in Zhen Liu’s head had explained, once Zhen Liu was exhausted and essentially dead on the ground, that aether medicines and elixirs could help speed up the process and probably restore the feeling in his legs.
"Wait, the elixir storeroom isn’t that far from here, how long ago did she leave?," Zhen Yue asked.
"About an hour ago, give or take," Zhen Hai answered.
"She should be back by now what’s taking her?"
________________________________________________
Meanwhile in the medicinal storeroom.
|Author’s note: It is recommended to read the following scene with a heavy metal guitar solo in the background. Just trust me.|
"HURRY UP ALREADY! SHE IS CHEWING AT MY CRAB ARM!"
"GIVE RAZZIE THE YUMMIES!"
"WAIT, WHEN DID YOU GIVE YOURSELF A NICKNAME?!"
"I’M TRYING, THIS PLACE WAS ORGANIZED like SHIT!"
"GAAH! HER TEETH ARE IN MY FLESH!"
________________________________________________
"Maybe the elixirs got misplaced?"
"Fair enough," Zhen Yue conceded. She turned her attention towards Zhen Hai, who still hadn’t moved anything other than his head.
"What about you? Intense training technique?"
"No...," Zhen Hai groaned. "I went on a matchmaking date with Prince Carlos’s daughter: Bellona."
"Ah," Zhen Yue said in understanding. "I take it didn’t go well?"
________________________________________________
"Excuse me Mr.Playboy, but you know it’s considered incredibly rude to go on a matchmaker date with another girl when you are already seeing someone in a romantic capacity. Even if it’s in a secret capacity," Bellona stated in an incredibly blunt tone without a hint of decorum. Evidently, this sent Gianna far pass a fit and straight into a rage.
"A matchmaker date?!"
"Wait, I can explain!," Zhen Hai tried to say while holding up a pleasing gesture. For her part, Bellona just got up and left in the opposite direction.
"Well then, it appears you two have some things to work out. In that case, I shall take my leave and prepare for tomorrow’s date. Zhen Guo, was it? Good luck with your playboy lover by the way~"
________________________________________________
"It didn’t go great. And she’s about as blunt as a war hammer," Zhen Hai moaned as he placed his face back to the ground, "destructive like one too."
Zhen Yue had a weird expression on her face at that last comment, but smartly decided not to look deeper into that.
Zhen Liu on the other hand made a mental note about that comment.
’Fucking called that shit...gods above I hope that doesn’t foreshadow something...’
"Well...at least there’s a bright side to this whole situation," Zhen Yue attempted to say in a comforting tone.
"And what’s that?," Zhen Hai asked with a pointed glare.
"Zhen Guo will have to deal with her tomorrow," Zhen Yue answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
Zhen Hai just stared at her in response with a haunted look on his face.
"See...normally I’d find that funny, but I don’t think Zhen Guo’s heart can withstand whatever she got going on in her head."
Spoiler alert...he was going to be right.