The first lesson began without warning.
Kael was still adjusting to the idea of having a master when Shen Yao stopped walking and raised a single flower.
"Stop"
Kael froze.
The ruined pavilion behind them faded from his awareness as Shen Yao turned slowly, eyes calm but sharp.
"Draw a line" Shen Yao said "Anywhere".
Kael hesitated only briefly.
He raised his hand 'Don't say Arise!!!'
He calmed down and raised his hand and focused and a thin conceptual boundary snapped into existence across the cracked ground.
The air hummed faintly.
Shen Yao looked down at it.
Then he stepped forward, the line shattered.
It did not get erased nor overwritten.
It simply failed.
Kael stiffened.
"You didn't even resist it"
"I didn't need to, you gave permission to fail".
Kael frowned deeply.
"I didn't....."
"You did" Shen Yao interrupted "The moment you acted".
Kael clenched his jaw.
"Then what do you want me to do?" he asked "Just stand there?"
"Yes".
Kael blinked.
"That's it?".
"For now, yes" Shen Yao said.
"If you have observed the the bosses you have faced till now, there is some unique pressure behind them, where you feel fear, oppressed, feeling of something strong and you cant do anything against them"
Kael listened to Shen Yao intensely, Shen Yao continued.
"If you have read the books or stories of kings of the empire, even they are weak when you compare it to the knights who are really strong, but why does knights obey the kings....."
"Because he is a king??"
"Yes that's true, another reason is authority. Authority is built in with their body and showed passively outside without using external skills and techniques"
"If you build that authority passively even if you face huge amount of army against you, you can crush most of the army by just using your authority and remaining you can defeat them by strategies, strength and absolute power"
Kael thought intensely 'Now I understand , I have read various of web-novels where the main character has aura farming energy and the villains have a unique amount of badass aura which could be felt anywhere, so basically I have to convert my power to passive authority'.
Shen Yao turned and walked several steps away stopping at the center of the plaza.
"Come, stand here"
Kael obeyed.
The moment he stopped into the plaza he felt it, the distortion in space a subtle but omnipresent. This was not empty ground. It was layered with old authority, remnants of battles long past.
"This place, was once a convergence point. Countless players, monsters and entities passed through here".
Kael listened intently.
"The tower remembers not consciously but structurally".
He gestured broadly.
"Right now, this space is filled with unresolved boundaries"
Kael swallowed.
"...So?".
"So" Shen Yao calmly "Do nothing".
Silence fell.
Seconds passed.
Then minutes.
Kael stood still every instinct screaming at him to do something. His senses reached outward automatically, Tap skill activating on reflex.
Information flickered at the edge of his vision and vanished.
"Huh?" Kael muttered.
"Turn it off" Shen Yao said without looking "Or rather stop leaning on it".
Kael frowned.
"I'm not activating it manually".
"I know and that's the problem"
Kael inhaled deeply and tried to suppress the impulse.
His perception dulled slightly.
The world felt heavier.
Uncomfortable.
Time stretched.
Then----
A faint ripple passes through the air near his left shoulder.
Kael reacted instantly.
He drew a line.
The ripple collapsed.
Shen Yao sighed.
"You failed!".
Kael turned sharply.
"That thing was about to attack me!".
"No, u just felt it that would attack you but it was just about to exist".
Kael stared.
"That's not better".
Shen Yao walked closer.
"You reacted because you perceived danger, not because danger existed".
Kael opened his mouth to argue then stopped.
"You're saying I'm still thinking like a fighter or a warrior for the next attack and perceiving danger constantly?'
"Yes and you are not one" Shen Yao said.
The words hit harder than expected.
Kael clenched his fists.
"Then what am I?"
Shen Yao studied him.
"You are a boundary, the line, the eraser, but you keep trying to swing yourself like a blade".
Kael looked down at his own hands.
"Then how do I stop?"
Shen Yao smiled faintly.
"You don't, you settle"
Kael was tired of hearing the confusing words.
"That does not mean anything".
"It will, it will eventually".
He raised his hand again.
This time a pressure descended.
Which was not hostile and not aggressive.
The air thickened as if the the world itself was holding the breath.
Kael felt it immediately.
A line wanted to form.
His instincts surged, eraser twitching beneath the surface.
Kael grit his teeth.
Don't.
The pressure increased.
Sweat beaded on his forehead.
His vision blurred.
[Warning: Mental Load increasing]
The system flickered and then vanished.
"Ignore it, if you rely on the tower now, you will never understand your power".
Kael's knees trembled.
The pressure felt like standing at the edge of an invisible cliff.
His instincts begged him to cut, to erase, to end it.
Kael forced himself to breathe.
Slowly, evenly.
The pressure shifted which was not lessened but changed.
It began to...flow.
Kael's eyes widened slightly.
The world did not push against him anymore.
It passed around him.
For a brief moment.
The pressure disappeared.
Kael exhaled sharply.
"I felt it for a second!".
Shen Yao nodded.
"That was the first step. You stopped trying to impose order".
Kael looked up "And?".
"And then you lost it" Shen Yao added.
Shen Yao turned away.
"You will repeat this exercise, until your instincts stop screaming".
Kael stared.
"How long will that take?".
Shen Yao paused.
"For you its days maybe weeks"
Kael exhaled slowly.
"And if I fail?".
"You will fail in fact repeatedly".'
Kael laughed weakly.
"Great"
Shen Yao's voice hardened slightly.
"Do not mistake for cruelty, If you had continued using your power the way you were...."
He looked back and eyes sharp.
"You would have shattered your conceptual foundation before floor 20th".
Kael stiffened "That serious"
"Yes, the tower punishes those who misuse authority more harshly than those who lack it".
Kael felt silent.
"...so everyone else who reaches higher floors---"
"Either understands what they are or dies before they have to".
Kael's expression darkened.
He thought of the hidden boss on floor 4.
Of the instant kill on floor 5.
Of how easy it had felt.
"I was getting arrogant" Kael admitted quietly.
Shen Yao did not deny it.
"Good, that means there is something left to salvage".
He stepped back toward the pavilion.
"Rest, your mind needs time to reorganize".
Kael hesitated.
"....Master".
Shen Yao stopped.
"....Why help me?" Kael asked "You could have taken the cultivation record and left"
Shen Yao looked at him and knowing the actual reason why can't he leave, but he cant reveal that to his disciple yet.
Shen Yao looked at the ruined city.
"I was stuck here because I misunderstood the path" he said "You arrived because you stumbled onto it".
He turned back.
"That makes you dangerous and interesting"
Kael nodded slowly.
"I wont waste it".
Shen Yao smiled faintly.
"We'll see" he said.
As Shen Yao walked away Kael sat down heavily staring at his trembling hands.
For the first time since entering the tower he did not feel powerful.
He felt incomplete.
And somewhere deep within his talents beneath the urge to cut and erase--
Something waited to be understood.