Honkai Star Rail: My Death Feeds Their Madness — Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Master Knows Her Body Better Than She Does

However, after only a few fleeting days of peace, the image of Kagashi in Jingliu’s heart froze over once more, returning to that of a cold, unfeeling taskmaster. A new, terrifying regimen had been added to her daily routine: flexibility training.

“Among the Abominations of Abundance that the Cloud Knights must face, there are countless sub-species with extremely bizarre anatomical structures,” Kagashi explained, his voice devoid of inflection. “Their attack angles are entirely unpredictable.”

“Whether you are parrying their offensive strikes or initiating the first blow, you must be even more unpredictable than they are. The absolute prerequisite for this martial path is that your body must be flexible enough to contort into seemingly impossible positions.”

Jingliu swallowed hard, a deep sense of dread pooling in her stomach. “For example…?” she asked cautiously.

“For example, like this.”

Without warning, Kagashi turned his back to her. In the very next second, with a sickening, fluid motion, his upper torso eerily rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees to face her, his lower half remaining perfectly still.

Jingliu was startled out of her wits, her breath hitching in her throat.

“W-won’t the lumbar spine snap from that?”

“At first, it will,” Kagashi replied calmly, his twisted posture making the casual tone all the more horrifying. “But once it has been broken enough times, it will adapt and cease to break. The younger you are, the easier it is to mold the flesh and bone. By the time you reach adulthood and your skeletal structure is completely set, the difficulty and the agony will skyrocket.”

Kagashi did not miss the raw fear trembling in his disciple’s ruby eyes, but his expression remained a mask of placid indifference. He had no intention of changing his mind.

“For now, flexibility training and precision strike training will alternate daily. Once your body adapts to the strain, we will resume executing both regimens every single day.”

“This…”

“What? Are you afraid of a little suffering?”

“I-I am…” Jingliu stammered, her small hands clenching into fists. “But I won’t back down, Master!”

“Very well. First, complete today’s long-distance run and your sword-swinging drills.”

“Yes…”

The sun rose, casting long shadows across the courtyard, and eventually sank beneath the horizon.

Agonized screams echoed endlessly throughout the Martial Arts Field, a harrowing chorus of pain that drowned out the rustling leaves and the wind, spreading intermittently into the distant mountains.

Unfortunately for the young girl, this secluded grotto-haven was situated far from the hustle and bustle of the Xianzhou’s populated sectors. No matter how miserable or piercing her cries became, only Kagashi was there to hear them.

By nightfall, Jingliu lay paralyzed on the cold stone floor, her slender brows knitted together in a tight, trembling frown. Sweat plastered her silver hair to her pale cheeks.

Just moments ago, her small body had been forcibly folded into a myriad of impossible angles by Kagashi’s unyielding hands.

Her feet and arms were bent at eerie, unnatural trajectories. Her legs had been pressed flush against her own back, and the shoulder joints connecting her arms were forcibly rotated backward. If one were to describe Jingliu’s current state, the most accurate phrase would be: no longer human-shaped.

She lay prone on the ground, her arms stretched backward to meet her feet, which were also pulled over her back, forming a grotesque, strained circle of flesh and bone.

Beyond this, she had been manipulated into dozens of other high-difficulty, joint-tearing poses. Throughout all her recent suffering, Jingliu had stubbornly refused to ask Kagashi for mercy. But this time, the sheer, overwhelming agony broke her. She wept openly, her tears staining the stone as she finally begged for a reprieve.

She truly couldn’t help it.

Even though her spirit wanted to grit her teeth and persevere, once her body’s primal self-protection mechanisms flooded her brain with danger signals, her mouth moved on its own, pleading for it to stop.

Through the blurred, tear-soaked haze of her fading consciousness, she caught sight of Kagashi’s perfectly expressionless face. For a fleeting second, a dark suspicion crept into her mind. ‘Does Master actually enjoy this?’

She would pass out from the sheer magnitude of the pain, only to be jolted awake moments later as another joint was pushed past its limit.

Before the merciful blackness of unconsciousness claimed her for the final time that night, two distinct thoughts flashed through Jingliu’s exhausted mind.

First: The word gentleness had truly been eradicated from the depths of her master’s heart.

Second: Given the miserable, broken state of her body, she probably wouldn’t be able to train for a very long time… right?

But was that really the case?

Naturally not.

When Jingliu slowly opened her eyes the next morning, she expected a world of blinding pain. Instead, she found herself waking up in her bed as usual, feeling completely refreshed. She frantically inspected her limbs; there was not a single bruise, let alone a broken bone. Her mind was instantly flooded with a dozen bewildered question marks.

With such catastrophic injuries, no matter how miraculous the medical arts of the Xianzhou Luofu were, it was biologically impossible for a Xianzhou native’s regenerative abilities to complete a full self-healing cycle after just one night’s sleep.

Short-Life Species often said it took a hundred days to recover from severe bone and muscle trauma. Even for Long-Life Species like the Xianzhou people, it still required several days of rest for shattered limbs to knit back together. If a limb was entirely severed, it would take dozens of days to regrow.

Last night, practically every bone in her body had been fractured or dislocated. She had been certain that, even with her master’s extraordinary medical prowess, she would be bedridden for weeks.

Yet here she was, in perfect condition. Jingliu sat blankly on the edge of the bed, utterly dazed. The urge to run out and demand an explanation from her master flared up, but she quickly swallowed it down.

‘Sigh… forget it.’

Over the past few weeks, she had lost count of how many times she felt she was literally being worked to death, yet she had never actually crossed that threshold.

The truth was absolute: Master knew her body far better than she did. He knew the exact, razor-thin boundary of her physical limits.

As his disciple, her only duty was to silence her doubts, obey his commands, and endure the bitter crucible of his training.

Long-distance running, endless sword swings, grueling precision strikes, and the agonizing body flexibility contortions… the brutal cycle repeated without end.

The moment she completed her current quotas, if she still possessed a shred of consciousness, Kagashi would immediately pile on new targets. It was a regimen designed to be impossible to finish; fainting from total exhaustion was the only permitted conclusion to her day.

It was during this relentless period that General Sha Feng came to visit Kagashi’s residence.

Even with the General’s centuries of battlefield experience and ironclad composure, witnessing the sheer brutality of Kagashi molding his disciple caused the corners of his eyes to twitch uncontrollably.

Finally, as he watched the silver-haired man casually pick up the physically distorted, unconscious Jingliu to carry her limp form back into the house, the General couldn’t hold his tongue any longer.

“If your pedagogical methods were ever reported to the Earth-Balance Commission, you would undoubtedly be charged with several severe crimes…” Sha Feng muttered.

Accusations of intentional harm or extreme child abuse would not be an exaggeration in the slightest. After all, Jingliu was still just a child in her Tender Years.

“She is already a sworn member of the Cloud Knights Reserve Army,” Kagashi replied indifferently, his tone flat as he adjusted the sleeping girl in his arms.

“…” Sha Feng was rendered entirely speechless.

He sighed inwardly. Watching Kagashi’s seemingly inhumane training methods had momentarily made him forget that he was the one who had pulled the strings to get Jingliu into the reserve army in the first place.

Once a recruit was inducted into the Cloud Knights Reserve, they were bound to the military’s grueling standards. With the exception of the Foxians, whose natural recovery abilities were somewhat poorer, recruits simply had to endure the bitterness, no matter how agonizing. As long as a Xianzhou native or a Vidyadhara didn’t outright die on the training field, military healers would step in, mend their broken bodies, and throw them right back into the meat grinder.

However, the Foxians stationed on the Yaoqing Xianzhou were a different breed; their training volumes were practically identical to the local Xianzhou and Vidyadhara troops. In the elite unit known as the Qingqiu Guard, the physical conditioning demanded of the Foxians was so extreme that even many naturally resilient Vidyadhara couldn’t handle it.

“Three days from now is the date you will lead the vanguard on the expedition,” Sha Feng said, shifting the topic to official matters. “I have already arranged the necessary military affairs and logistics, but…”

“General, feel free to speak plainly,” Kagashi said, stepping back out of the house after tucking Jingliu into bed.

“There are still a few tough nuts to crack within the ranks.”

“I am aware. After all, I am an outsider, not a native of the Yaoqing. The solution is simple: whoever dares to be defiant will learn how to behave after a thorough beating.”

“Mm. It seems you will mingle perfectly well with the Yaoqing Cloud Knights,” Sha Feng replied, a reassured smile finally breaking through his stern demeanor.

The Yaoqing Xianzhou valued martial prowess above all else. There was virtually no dispute that couldn’t be settled by a duel in the ring. And if a problem persisted, it simply meant the beating hadn’t been severe enough.

Two days later.

When Jingliu woke up and wandered out into the morning light, she found that Kagashi was not standing in the Martial Arts Field waiting to torture her as usual.

Instead, he was fully clad in the heavy, complex battle armor of a Cloud Knight. He stood before a mirror, holding a pair of shears, methodically cutting off his long, dark hair.

“Master, you are…?” Jingliu asked, her voice tinged with sudden apprehension.

“The expedition against the Abominations. We set out tomorrow,” Kagashi answered, the shears snipping away the long strands with cold precision.

“Then I…”

“I have already entrusted someone to escort you to the grotto-haven where the Cloud Knight training camp is located. While I am away on the front lines, you will train alongside the rest of the Cloud Knights Reserve Army.”

Hearing this, Jingliu froze, slightly stunned.

She had become so accustomed to the grueling routine, to seeing her master’s impassive face the moment she woke up every single day. This sudden, jarring change made a sharp pang of reluctance well up from the very depths of her heart.

“Should I maintain my current training intensity, or increase it?” she asked softly, trying to mask her emotions.

“Control it moderately yourself. The reserve army isn’t just about spending your days in bitter physical conditioning; you can also use the time to continue your unfinished Academy courses there.”

Kagashi set down the shears. He tilted his head, adjusting his angle in the mirror as he carefully shaved the stubble from his jawline.

“Just passing those Literature and Poetry classes is enough. But for the course ‘Detailed Explanation of the Great Enemy: Abominations of Abundance,’ I expect you to achieve a perfect score. Do you understand?”

“I understand, Master,” she nodded obediently. She hesitated for a moment, her fingers gripping the hem of her sleepwear. “How long will you be gone on this expedition?”

“Unknown,” Kagashi replied, his tone pragmatic. “Perhaps six months at the fastest. Over a year at the slowest.”

Jingliu’s breath hitched. “If all goes well… Master should be able to make it back in time for my Coming-of-Age Ceremony. I want Master to personally… is that okay?”

“Provided that things go smoothly,” Kagashi said. He did not refuse her, nor did he offer a concrete promise.

“As long as Master is willing…” The corners of Jingliu’s mouth curled up into a small, fragile smile, holding onto that sliver of hope.