Villain: The Play of Destiny

The grey-haired lady twisted right in the air and casually grabbed his guarding arm, pushing it out of the way before squarely landing a fist on his chest.

Keith failed to completely negate the attack with his Aura and fell backwards, rolling twice before controlling the momentum and sitting up, panting heavily.

"I think that's enough for today." A sonorous voice said, and Keith smiled at the grey-haired lady.

"Why, Sibyl? Tired already?" He teasingly asked.

Sibyl narrowed her soft blue eyes at him and then took two deep breaths before getting back in her fighting stance.

"Come, Young Master." She challenged him.

Keith seriously looked at her and then could not suppress his laughter.

He knew that she was tired, much more tired than him. After all, there was no difference between their Cultivation Realms now. They were both at the Peak of Great Profound Realm, but she did not possess any Mana in her Blood that would help her recover at the rate he did.

Sibyl understood that he had no intentions of continuing and then dropped her stance before sitting in a cross-legged position and using the method he had taught her to recover herself.

Keith eventually stopped laughing and then chuckled before getting up and walking up to the Shadow of his mother, whom he once used to call 'mother' as well.

"Thank you, Sibyl." He leaned in and planted a kiss on her head, who was someone he deeply cared for, before walking out of her training room.

Since he was not proficient in hand-to-hand combat, he sought help from Sibyl to teach him about it. He could have asked Yingying, or even Victor or Ryou, but he knew that both Yingying and Victor would refuse to go all out against him as they would not harm their Master. And Ryou had a lot of things on his hands and focused on his Cultivation at other times.

Besides, she was way more experienced than anyone else he could have asked to train him.

And after months of training together with Sibyl, he was glad he decided to seek her help. It not only helped him the way he wanted but also made her feel happy, which his mother had conveyed to him that she was grateful for it.

After all, over the years, the time he had spent with Sibyl had diminished because he had gotten busy with his life and no longer sought her for little things and help.

She was a Shadow, and she would never voice her desires, but he knew she missed spending time with him.

When he reached the room, he found Rebecca and Amelia still present at the chess table. They were at it when he had woken up, they were at it when he had left to train with Sibyl, four hours ago, and they were still at it.

"Don't tell me that you are still on your first game..." He playfully said.

"It's our second," Rebecca informed him and then made a move on the board, but Amelia seemed ready for it and immediately replied.

He curiously walked up to the board and found the pieces in a very familiar arrangement.

Amelia caught him frowning and smiled.

"She's using your last night's plan against me, hoping to find a way to win."

"Oh..." Keith sighed and then helplessly shook his head before walking into the dressing room. "Let me know if you find a way, dear Blondie."

"Hey! Let me focus!" She glared at him, not amused at the nickname he had come to use for her.

"You need to focus?" He turned around and smirked at her. "You use Amelia's game against me and use mine against her. And right now, I am pretty sure that you just want to see how Amelia performs in this situation so that you can use her methods against me when you play with me."

"Scared?" Rebecca smirked at him. "I remember a certain someone telling me that I should make the best use of my gifts. And I am only listening to his advice."

"Yeah, yeah..." He sighed and shook his head. "Finish it up before I return from the shower. We have to cover a lot of different techniques today."

"No...!" The blonde girl looked at him on displeasure and then at the clock. "Can we start our studies after lunch?"

"No." He shook his head and without waiting for her next words, entered the dressing room, closing the door behind him.

Amelia smiled when she saw how dejected Rebecca looked right now. It was quite ironic since the blonde girl was proud of everything Keith taught her, and at the same time, disliked studying medicine.

"Your move." She reminded her.

Rebecca nodded to her and then immediately focused back on the board.

When Keith returned to the room half an hour later, he found his dear Rebecca lost in some thought, lying on his bed, and staring at the ceiling.

"You lost again, didn't you?" He chuckled as he guessed what she was thinking about.

"Yes." She nodded her head and then kept playing the game in her mind over and over again.

She did find a couple of ways to make the game longer or even turn it around, but she knew that if she changed the game, Amelia too would change the game accordingly.

Keith gently smiled at her and then arrived by her side before leaning in and planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Let's make love..." He whispered in her ear, and all her thoughts vaporized away. She tried to lock her arms around his neck to pull him on top of her, but he jumped back in time and started laughing. "Get up, lazy ass. We have a lot to study today!"

"You are mean!!!" Rebecca pouted but obediently got up from the bed to follow him out of the room. "What are you teaching me today?" She curiously asked.

"The Big Dipper Array, the Nine Rings of Life, the Star of Death, and the Palm of Dreams."

The blonde-haired girl nodded her head uninterestedly, but Keith knew that she was quite excited since she had already read the notes on these Techniques, and today, he will show her exactly how they are performed.

They reached a Multi-Purpose Room, which was transformed into an intensive care unit by Keith.

"Young Master! Lady Rebecca" There were a couple of people waiting for them in the room and immediately bowed to them.

"Good Morning!" He nodded to them and then looked at the middle-aged man in the room, who was suffering from Malaria. He was a worker at the Demiliore Estate, and the husband of the maid who was standing right next to her.

"Let's start." He said and then the maid bowed to him before helping Rebecca wear a scrub, mask, and gloves.

Keith did not bother with them, it was just that his Fiancée was not fond of being around patients without taking these precautions, though they were unnecessary in this case.

After the maid left the room, Keith instructed the man to take off his shirt and lie back down on the operating table, which he complied with without any hesitation.

The man was curiously looking at the two of them, but Keith simply pressed his fingers behind his neck and put him into a deep sleep.

He then unpacked a box of a new set of Silver Needles and then in a few seconds, turned the man into a hedgehog.

Rebecca frowned at what Keith was doing. He was putting the man's life in danger. But it did not matter to her and she stayed quiet, watching everything with complete attention.

"Come." He called her when he picked out all the Needless from the patient's body. "Diagnose."

Rebecca nodded to him and came forward to inspect the man's condition through a couple of techniques.

"His heart is failing, and he will die within a few minutes. The blood in his veins has also started thickening, becoming more viscous, and the immune system has been halted..." She detailed all her findings and Keith nodded to her in approval.

"What do you think is the best way to save him from this state?"

"Nine Rings of Life." She unhesitantly replied.

"Good." He then handed her the set of Silver Needles that he had just disinfected. "Start by placing the first needle on the 49th Acupoint..."

For the next two hours, Keith taught her how exactly each of the four Techniques worked and needed to be executed, putting the man's life in danger over and over again, forcing her to save him from the brink of death.

The best thing about teaching Rebecca was that he did not have to explain things twice to her, and whatever he taught her would forever be preserved in her mind.

Though she had read all the notes and books on medicine he had arranged for her, she still needed these practicals to truly understand how things worked. And she realized that reading medical books only was not as helpful as she had once thought it would be.

Operating on a patient was hard, immensely difficult when the patient was on a brink of death, and what was the most challenging part was the delicate control a doctor needed to have on their Aura and Mana.

"Thank you, Young Master, Lady Rebecca" The man sincerely said after he woke up and found out that his fever was gone and that his body felt revitalised.

Strangely, he felt more vigorous than ever.

"You are welcome. But you must not do any strenuous physical activity today. Eat and sleep." Keith told him.

"I will do as you say."

After the man left the ICU, Rebecca swayed on her feet and Keith caught her in his arms.

She had nearly spent all of her Aura Reserves and needed a few hours of rest now.

"I am sleepy..." She cutely informed him.

"Sleep." He planted a kiss on her head and then took off her scrub, mask, and gloves before picking her up in his arm and leading her to her bedroom.