Huyan Lanrou awakened a plant-type martial spirit— Snow Sakura. Her martial spirit looked like a robust Sakura tree with streaks of ice on the trunk. Unlike other plant-based spirits, however, the Snow Sakura gave Huyan Lanrou an innate ability to cast minor illusion and hypnotize her targets. Well... her spirit gave her a chance to hypnotize all the targets. The chances of success depended on the target itself.

"Hey, are you listening?"

A green-haired girl sitting in front of Huyan Lanrou frowned. It was already a break for their class and they had arrived in the cafeteria to snack their free time away.

"Huh? Yea, sorry."

"Huuun? You've been acting like this since this morning. Don't tell me something really happened between you and Teacher Nik?"

The girl eyed Huyan Lanrou cautiously. The kids might still be resistant to Nik's charm but in a few year's difference, he would definitely become the prince charming for the entire school. The thought of Lanrou getting invited by the hottest teacher recruited by the Institute made many burn in envy. Lanrou's cheeks blushed as she recalled the illusion she fell into when trying to successfully pull Nik under her own focus.

She was ravaged.

Thoroughly at that!

She could still feel the touch of his thumb on her cheek as the faceless, yet a familiar hunk tenderly rubbed... her bits. Her hands did not leave any spot untouched as her lips remained locked with the Hunk's the entire time. Under the table, Lanrou clenched her thighs shut as she felt a familiar sense of moistness. With flushed skin, Huyan Lanrou stammered uncharacteristically, "N-nothing happened!"

The green-haired girl remained dubious until Lanrou matched the girl's gaze from the corner of her eyes and spoke with barely-veiled bashfulness, "Enough about him... Teacher Nik was just training us. What about you and Chu Ping? Weren't you h-holding hands near the Snow stream?"

This time, it was the green-haired girl's to turn bashful as she lowered her head, "A-about that... we... we are... -ing..."

Lanrou frowned and spoke up, "What? I couldn't hear what you said."

"I said," The green-haired girl pushed her index's against each other, "We are marrying..."

The girl spoke with a heavy blush as she pulled a locket hidden beneath the neck of her qipao. Instantly, Huyan Lanrou's lips parted in an 'o' shape as her eyes bulged with shock.

"Don't you have... a poison spirit... wouldn't Chu Ping have to... take an antidote every single day?"

The girl felt even more embarrassed, "Actually... Chu Ping's mother caught us... and one thing led to another..."

The girl smiled happily. She was practically aglow!

"Yeah, Teacher Nik and I kissed, too!"

Lanrou turned her head and snorted. The did kiss... sort of.

"Haaaa?!"

Now, it was her friend's turn to open her mouth wide, "K-k-k-kissed?!!"

She yelled as Lanrou instantly leaned forward in fright and covered her dumb friend's mouth.

"Shhhh!"

Lanrou hissed and only after her friend calmed down did she settle down. She carefully eyes her friend and finally realized her own stupidity to admit such a thing out of envy for her friend's happiness... she should have known better than marrying is only a short-term source of happiness. Didn't her father and mother fight all the time?

How could she feel envious of such stupidity! Lanrou cursed herself as the girl in front of her took Lanrou's hand and spoke seriously, "Lanrou... I won't tell about this to anyone. I swear on my mother's name."

Lanrou pursed her lips. Her friend's mother was already dead and if Lanrou truly understood her friend, her father would be outraged by tomorrow evening and would be looking out to drink Nik's blood through his decapitated head.

'Sorry... teacher... shouldn't have done that to me...'

Lanrou shrugged. It wouldn't be the first time that someone was going to get killed due to the femme fatale her existence was.

"Lanrou, now that I think of it, isn't Shen Xiu extremely close to Teacher Nik? You have to be careful!"

The girl spoke with worry as Lanrou frowned. She would have gone this morning if it wasn't for Nik's sudden reversal yesterday. She felt shameful even getting close to Nik so that is why she skipped the practical class.

"So? Did you kiss him in front of others or alone?"

Lanrou thought for a moment. Letting someone get killed while knowing that he wasn't even at fault did not sit right with her. Nobody forced her to put Nik in her illusion, right?

"Of course, alone."

Lanrou smiled playfully. She finally found a way to get back at Nik due to his retaliation to her own action.

It was big brain time.

As the classes came to an end, Lanrou hung out with a couple of friends until it was her appointment with Nik for her to get trained. She made her way towards the training field utilized by teachers and came face-to-face with a gloomy Shen Xiu and a lively commoner practicing... oh, wait, was her name Korrna?

Lanrou hummed in amusement as she was able to remember the name of a commoner. To emphasize the face, she smiled widely and waved her hands towards Korra, "Hey, Korrna, where is the teacher?"

With a frown, Korra kicked sideways and huffed out, "It's Korra and teach is with Xiao Ning'er in his room. She has some injuries that teach is attending to."

Huyan Lanrou frowned at the information as her heart-chilled up and she ducked, letting a sharp kick pass through her head. 

It was Shen Xiu. Once again, she was back to wearing a purple, deep-necked qipao that exposed much of her flesh while also keeping her grace and making her look more erotic.

"Please don't get in the way. You can get hurt."

A smile had finally touched Shen Xiu as she looked down on the crouched Lanrou with a condescending gaze.

"You!"

A fight erupted...

Unfortunately, Korra joined in for the fun.

Meanwhile, within Nik's room, Ning'er explained Nik the situation about her injuries.

"So, your bruises appeared out of nowhere. They hurt during the night and you feel extremely cold and uncomfortable during the day."

Nik muttered as Ning'er sat on the bed with a heavy blush filling her face while Nik sat near Ning'er's foot and examined it closely. As she said, the bruises did look quite painful.

"I have to ask, Ning'er... you... somebody in your family or someone close to you isn't hurting you, right?"

He looked up and asked kindly. He could feel that Ning'er was without a doubt, extremely uncomfortable within his room. Even though Nik's room was quite clean, she still felt weirded out by the strange set-up and not to mention the fact that the narrow thoughts of this world could easily link Ning'er entering his room to Ning'er entering his pants.

"No, Teacher."

She instantly shook her head, "This... happened after I started training at night. Even my dad doesn't know it."

Nik nodded. He took Ning'er's explanation with a grain of salt. It was quite common for kids to lie for their parents even if they were in the wrong. If this was the case, Nik couldn't force Ning'er to come clean and he did not know or care for her enough to influence her thoughts to be honest with him.

"I believe you," Nik smiled as his hands glowed warmly, "Please tell me if this hurt or if you feel anything different."

Nik slowly lowered his hand under Ning'er's intense gaze. The moment his palm touched her ankle, Ning'er's body shivered slightly while she looked to her side. After meticulously cultivating her spirit energy to the peak of rank ten quite recently, Ning'er could easily feel a strange type of energy interacting with her wound. Alas, she did not feel any different. Even Nik received similar feedback as he discovered a new type of energy within Ning'er's bruises. It felt like the death energy within the zombies but unlike its signature decay, this energy felt colder.

Instantly switching his methods, Nik allowed a slight stream of Life Energy interacting with the wound and the results were instantaneous. Nik could feel his Life Energy canceling out an extremely tiny portion of the energy hidden within the bruises Ning'er let out a strained groan. Stopping immediately, Nik gently let go of Ning'er's foot and inquired softly.

"Does your ankle still hurt?"

Ning'er tried to move her foot while her expression grew mildly uncomfortable. Still, she nodded and looked up at Nik, who now sat back on his chair, with expectations, "Teacher, it doesn't feel as painful as before."

Nik nodded after hearing that. From the amount of energy diminished within the bruise of her ankle, it was easy to estimate the conversion. Of course, Nik wasn't delusional to convert enough of the energy within her bruise...

Wait, instead of canceling, a conversion could definitely work. 

"Let me try one more thing," Nik spoke up and knelt close to her foot once again. Ning'er did not have enough time to react as Nik utilized his system energy to cover the energy within the bruise and started converting it. Instead of the pain that emerged due to the conflict of two opposing energies, Ning'er felt warm and comfortable as the mark of her bruise grew faint visibly.

The energy conversion was successful!

Ning'er's eyes widened in surprise as she yelped, "The pain is gone!"

Nik nodded... he could see it himself. But Ning'er's confirmation was quite a relief. 

"About the other bruise," Nik stood up and opened up softly. Ning'er's expression instantly grew bashful as she gripped her knees before exhaling deeply. Tracing the neckline of her top, she spoke up, "I'll remove it—"

"That won't be necessary."

Nik smiled and took Ning'er's left hand. Once again, Ning'er made a conscious effort to not break away from the contact. Until now, Nik hadn't done anything untoward her and he was already helpful. He was able to treat an injury that she had been trying to find the cure for herself. To her, this feat was already amazing enough.

Once again, Nik's system energy infiltrated Ning'er's body through her hand. Since Nik was already made aware of the area of impact, it was easy to identify the source of similar energy and Nik once again started the conversion. Nik's reasoning was simple. If this type of energy was harmful to Ning'er then the opposite energy of this form of energy might have an equally opposite reaction to Ning'er's body. In essence, the converted energy might be of nurturing nature to Ning'er's body.

Once again, a feeling of warmth seeped through the region right beneath her chest. This made the butterflies flutter within her stomach as she couldn't help but focus on Nik's hold of her hand. The few chatters about Nik during their class filled her mind as her thoughts grew more sidetracked. Her gaze flickered as Nik finally let go of her hand.

"There, do you feel uncomfortable?"

Nik inquired as Ning'er shook her head.

"Thank you, teacher."

"No worries. I couldn't have your injuries limiting you from learning my techniques."

Nik smiled and then thought of his previous conjecture. He still wasn't sure if Ning'er's family was involved in hurting her. He truly did not know her... but...

Well...

"Ning'er... if there is any problem bugging you... you can always come and talk to your teachers. Me or the others. We would do anything to help you."

Ning'er nodded softly and stood up, "Yes, sir."

Her tone was slightly lighter than usual. 

"Hmm, let's go out then. I am sure you must be itching to make up for all the time you lost."

Nik smiled and helped Ning'er stand up before the duo walked out only to see Korra practicing as usual while two unconscious bodies laid on the ground. They were Shen Xiu and Huyan Lanrou.

"Ah, Teach. They both fought each other until they both passed out."

Korra shrugged as Ning'er's lips twitched and Nik pointed out the obvious as he gazed at the distinct print of the front of a shoe on both of their cheeks, "Korra... those are from the front of your sandals."

Korra's expression and body stiffened momentarily before she took a deep breath and looked Nik in the eye.

"The berserk bear couldn't keep away from the fight...

Needless to say, only a single paw strike was needed to send the fox unconscious and the snap the sakura twig in two."

"You used kicks, not paws. Now, run around the entire Institute twice."

"Eh?! That's—"

"Now, please."

Nik cut in and sighed before asking Ning'er to help Shen Xiu and Huyan Lanrou move back into the medical area of the teacher's block and asked the institute's nurse to take care of the duo. As Nik gazed at the nurse, he finally realized that he could have taken Ning'er to see the nurse as well. Judging from Ning'er's expression, she had come to the same conclusion as well.