Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

of blue light crisscrossed through the hall. The master zigged and zagged between them, his form little more than a blur. Then he was among the Peacekeepers, sending them flying against the walls and into each other.

A control panel sparked and shot flames. Smoke rose, and the water sprinklers engaged.

By the time Ken staggered to his feet, he was just in time to see a female nurse in a white, high-collared uniform sneaking up behind Master Ishihara with a hypodermic needle in hand.

Ken lunged toward the back of her legs, but she sidestepped, sending him tumbling to the floor yet again.

“Are you all right?” Master Ishihara asked without turning around.

“Yes!” And at the very least, Ken could protect the master’s back. He climbed back to his feet and threw a punch at the nurse.

Setting the needle between her teeth, she stepped closer, blocking his hand with one arm and attacking with the other. Her fist landed in his chest.

Pain flared, and he coughed as he stumbled back.

How foolish to think he could take out an XHuman with one blow, even if she was a head shorter than him. He charged again, this time swinging with a flurry of punches.

With each one, she responded with a simultaneous attack and defense, battering Ken to the point that he wobbled on his feet and would’ve fallen if not for Master Ishihara’s supportive arm.

“Not bad,” Master Ishihara said.

Ken’s cheeks burned. “But I didn’t land a single hit!”

“Oh, I was talking about her.” Master Ishihara stood Ken up, then sidled past to the woman. “I see Krav Maga is still practiced.”

Whatever Krav Maga was, it wasn’t the fighting style the Peacekeepers used. Ken was about to clear up the misunderstanding, when the nurse launched a quick punching combination, followed by a low kick. Master Ishihara swam through them all.

“My apologies for my inappropriate behavior,” he said, setting an open palm to her chest. Her knees buckled, and she fell.  He swept an arm behind her and lowered her to the floor.

Ken had probably gawked more times today than he had in the last year.

A blue particle beam stabbed through the air, and would’ve hit Master Ishihara had he not spun out of the way.

“Ken, step away from Ishihara.”

He craned past the master to see Captain Keiko. She held a pistol in either hand. Behind her stood at least ten of her elite tactical squad in their combat suits, their weapons levelled.

The master nudged him away, and he stumbled to the wall.

“Surrender, Ishihara,” she said. “We’ve blocked this sector off with force fields.”

Ken swallowed hard. He’d only ever heard of internal force fields on spacecraft, used to reinforce hull breaches.  Now, they were trapped behind one.

Chapter 5:

The Cultivator

R yu studied the hallway. Force fields had been purely theoretical when he’d last walked among the world of men, a futuristic concept seen only in sci-fi movies. But like everything else he’d encountered, a lot could change in eight hundred years.

Whatever else could be said about Captain Oyama—well, besides the fact she was gorgeous, and that he didn’t mind being mostly naked in front of her—she had a good sense of tactics. Unlike the previous group of soldiers who’d shot at him, her unit now aimed their weapons in a spread that covered the width and height of the corridor.

It could be a very big problem, or a very small one.

Testing out his recently-healed hand, he flexed and extended his fingers. His Core might only be at a quarter full.

More than enough.

Using his intention, he projected his Qi toward the control panel between him and the soldiers. A brief shower from the sprinklers had reduced the small fire to a few flickering sparks.

As a Cultivator of the Water Path, the Fire Path was the hardest to learn: training too intensely with flames would damage his Water; careless Cultivation of Water might douse what Fire he had. In eight hundred years, he’d only attained Second Rank on the Fire Path.

As feeble as that might be in the Land of Rivers and Lakes, it was infinitely more powerful than anyone here.  Unlike them, he could use Fireshaping to stoke a spark into something bigger with little more than Qi projection.

Rooting his stance to the floor, he flared his fingers out. The control panel erupted into flames. The soldiers’ eyes flicked to it, then back. The tension in their postures tightened.

Then the sprinklers sprang to life, sending streams of water into the hall.

With a sweep of his hand, his Qi shot through the water, congealing it into darts which struck some of the soldiers. Several fired their guns, but enough space opened up that Ryu was able to slip between the beams.

A second barrage started, but he waved his hands out. The sprinkler streams spread and flattened out into a wall. The beams dispersed on its surface.

“Sprinklers off,” Captain Oyama shouted.

Little good that would do; there was already enough water in the corridor. With a flick of his finger, he used Watershaping to send a whip out from the water wall and swept the guns from the men’s grips. With a slash of his hand, he thinned the whip to a monofilament and sliced the weapons in half before they hit the floor.

The soldiers on the other side stared at their hands, but the captain approached the water wall. Eyebrows clashing together, she tapped it with a finger and peered through, her brow furrowing in the cutest way.

Grinning, he bowed.

Her lips squeezed into a tight line, and not for a kiss.

He straightened and turned to Ken. “Is there another way out?”

The boy nodded like a happy dog wagged