The Good Teacher

Chapter 212 Second Perfected Resonance

Krish immediately honed his senses and observed the cultivation of his Disciple. His mien warped into a concerned frown as the significance of Marie's transformation dawned upon him. Needless to say, in his thousand years, and the records left behind by his ancestors, he was yet to observe a person undergoing a second perfected resonance... successfully. THAT was the keyword which brought an endless barrage of anxiety.

Perfected resonance is a sign that a cultivator's practised cultivation method resonates with their will - in other words, it is deemed compatible with them. A single cultivator may have multiple resonating cultivation methods, but they usually opt for one to take to the end of their journey. Once they achieve perfected resonance with one cultivation method, it is akin to pouring a hardening stone mixture over structural supports and letting things cure. The only thing possible now is to build upon these supports and create an intricate and vast, metaphorical house. To achieve a second perfected resonance should be impossible, on paper.

There have been cases where a mage underwent a successive perfected resonance after practising another cultivation method that resonated with them previously. The mage hoped to amplify their initial advantage by possibly dual-classing - an intuitive decision. The result, as expected, was the complete shattering of their nascent core and gruesome demise by explosion. Krish could confirm, with an unshakeable degree of certainty, that it was nigh impossible to succeed with a second perfected resonance.

This was why his countenance grew dourer with each passing second as the minor whirlpool of mana siphoned into his Disciple. Using his mana sense, he observed her cultivation as best as he could without interrupting her - since interrupting a perfected resonance would cause equal harm. Through his observations, he noticed something unfathomable transpiring within his Disciple. Well, calling it unfathomable would be incorrect since he had seen it once before - with Markus. Essentially, Krish could see his Disciple's cultivation being handled like a piece of elastic parchment, if that even was a thing. Her cemented concepts were being stretched, compressed and reshaped in real-time. Parts were being trimmed while in other places additions were underway. Certain sections were cut and then stitched back in other locations. All in all, controlled chaos reigned within his Disicple's nascent core.

It distressed Krish further since he could not keep track, or make any sense, of what his Disciple was actually going through. All he could hope was for her to come out the other side in one piece so that he could salvage what remained. At this moment, he regretted letting the girl experiment around with things beyond her control. He regretted indulging her arcane whims and fancies. He regretted everything!

'What fuelled his regret?' His mind paused to wonder. Was it objective - because he was losing a Disciple after years of waddling around without one? Or was it drenched in a coating of subjective emotion - because he was truly fond of his new Disciple and hated for her to suffer?

Though he hated to admit it, Krish was sure that it was probably the latter of the two reasons. Marie had grown on him, beyond his expectations. Through her constant egging and contention, she had somehow carved a place for herself in his heart. He was starting to care for the girl, and it was petrifying.

Some say love is the death of duty, but Krish knew that the parasite called love - in whatever form it may come be it romantic, familial, or friendship - was just death. This was especially true for a mage since attachments bred weaknesses. This was partly why many cultivation sects distanced their members from earthly connections. Since an opponent could exploit a weakness by simply threatening a loved one.

Krish's eyes darted to his desiccated leg at that instant. If nothing else, this withered husk of an appendage was a small preview of what the weakness called love would lead to. Heck, now that he thought about it, he was just as prepared to sacrifice another part of himself, albeit a negligible one, to let his student advance into the Foundation Establishment realm!

Though this begged the question if this second perfected resonance failed, would he be willing to sacrifice something more for his Disciple's sake?

The answer of course was 'Of course not... yet!' His eyes widened with a startle as that declaration formed in his mind. 'Yet' implied he would be willing to do so in the future! His heart had betrayed him once again.

The agitation stemming from the conclusion of his emotional dilemma, conjoined with the distress over his Disciple's currently uncertain future had completely drained Krish of his energy and rationality. The two harrowing thoughts had overtaken his mental capacities and rendered him immobile and paralysed. All he could do now was wait and watch.

In Krish's perspective, time decelerated to a slow crawl, yet in truth, the entire process of Marie's second perfected resonance barely lasted ten minutes. However, one must note that it was admittedly longer than what a usual perfected resonance would last for.

____

Once Marie and Guy exited the Church after a productive virtual venture, they were immediately greeted by the downtrodden figure of Krish. Due to their ignorance of the man's revolutionary emotional journey within the past ten minutes, they couldn't ascertain the cause of his current state.

"H-How are you feeling?" Krish asked with a shaking voice and an equally shaking hand.

"I'm fine," Marie responded casually.

"Do you feel any different? Don't be hasty and check your core - try to circulate your mana through it," Krish instructed.

Marie scrunched her nose in confusion and proceeded to follow her Master's instructions. As she did so, her expression starting fluctuate between bewilderment and pleasurable excitement.

"What's wrong?" Krish asked hastily.

"I-It's hard to explain. It feels different from before that's for sure," Marie pointed out. "But I suddenly feel more... saturated. Not bloated, just saturated. Do you get what I mean?"

"That should be expected, given how you've just gone through a perfected resonance. Your core must be practically bursting with mana," Krish affirmed.

"It's been some time though, why the delay?" Marie asked back while tilting her head.

"You misunderstand," Krish responded while shaking his head gravely. "You just underwent another perfected resonance."

The revelation came as a bombshell for both Marie and Guy, "What? HOW?!" Guy evoked.

"That shouldn't be possible," Marie muttered. It was in her nature to understand what she was getting into thoroughly. To that end, she was intimate with perfected resonance as a phenomenon.

"That's what I believed," Krish responded. "Until now. You are the first to do so, hence you must understand my incredulity and concern. I need to make sure that you are safe, you are my Disciple after all."

"What must be done?" Guy answered in Marie's stead in haste.

"I will need to inspect her cultivation, much like how Mage Jeeves has done before. I will need your permission, my Disciple," Krish asked.

Marie nodded in affirmation without hesitation. As she did so, she started to approach Krish.

"That won't be necessary," Krish halted her. "I can do it from here."

Krish closed his eyes and directed his full attention to Marie's core. With practised efficiency, he was now present inside her core space. Compared to Al, his spiritual cultivation was many levels ahead. It was so advanced that he did not need to physically contact the person whose cultivation he wanted to inspect. On a side note, in the Tesseract Transformation realm, spiritual attacks are another branch of offensive magic that one needs to protect themselves against. A Tesseract Transformation mage can effortlessly destroy an opposing mage's cultivation without moving a muscle.

Although, Krish's current venture wasn't to hurt anyone but rather to ensure that his Disciple's cultivation was safe. The core space is a semi-manifestation of what a mage's cultivation entails. Krish was knowledgeable about what a Heavenly Eye practitioner's core space looks like. They have been etched into the records he carried with him, passed down from his ancestors. After entering Marie's space, he could confirm that his Disciple's did not match it at all.

The room existed and did not exist. This was the best description Krish could come up with. The space twitched frantically after his presence was made known. Although Marie had allowed his access, the space did not like it that a character with proper dimensionality and form had encroached its domain. With every passing second, a discomfited wave washed over Krish that implemented a change in his form, abstracting it. But after determining that the change was faulty it would revert. Only to repeat once again.

Krish moved his gaze across the area and immediately noticed a small congregation of liquid at the centre, which he correctly assumed to be Marie's nascent core. To truly confirm the nature of his Disciple's cultivation, he would need to intrude in there.

With cautious steps, Krish moved forward, or did the room move backwards? Krish could neither confirm nor deny it. No matter, the distance between the liquid body and his form was shortening. After he was close, Krish lowered himself, or did the floor rise? Again, neither confirmed nor denied.

Krish brought his head close to the liquid body and dunked it in. He did not feel as though he was breaching a liquid surface, but he could confirm that his face had entered a different space. At this moment, Krish took a second to release a light chuckle as he likened his current pose to Al's.

"I hope nothing weird happens," Krish muttered. But his smile faltered and compressed. "I should probably prepare myself for the worst. Complacency will get me killed. And I don't want to get rescued by Guy..."

Krish opened his eyes and absorbed the magnificent visual presented before him. "Now this is familiar!"