2: 2nd teacher

My new teacher leers at me in a way that makes me suspect his intentions are similar to those of my former teacher. He seems to be taking his time though, as if he wants to be sure there’s no one watching over me first. Perhaps the death of my first teacher is too suspicious to be ignored. 

To prepare for the inevitable, I needed to improve my skills. Freezing the water in lungs is efficient, since the surface of the lungs is vital and relatively easy to reach through a person’s breath. However, I can’t count on everyone being ignorant of basic defenses against air based attacks. Additionally, affecting water that is inside the body is harder, because people and animals will instinctively resist such direct meddling. This is why cultivators so often rely upon indirect methods of attack, such as creating weapons out of ki, or throwing fire and ice. 

… actually, most cultivators just use weapons. It’s the simplest way to attack someone. They speak of the greatness of sword intent and mastering the way of the sword. Yet such things are weak in the face of true insight. I’ve seen and read enough to know that sword mastery leads to nothing more than the ability to cut. Mastery of an element can lead to far more. 

…

“My eyes!” 

As expected, he eventually made a move. So I froze his eyes, destroying them as the ice crystals broke through. Then I saw it: A hole in his defenses. His destroyed eyes provided a hole in the natural protective boundary living bodies possess. This hole was enough to draw out his water ki. Since I could only draw it out through the eye sockets of his now destroyed eyes, it wasn’t quite as messy at first. However, draining his brain killed him, letting me drain everything faster, once again leading to an explosion. Except this time his head remained intact. Just dried out.