Zhao Yao could feel a burning hot gaze centered on his back. Gooseb.u.mps were raised on almost every inch of his skin. He looked down tentatively at the soap between his feet.
"This feels weird. This feels very, very weird."
A montage of all the odd glances and gentleness that Baiquan had been exhibiting for the past couple of weeks started flas.h.i.+ng through his mind.
"Something is terribly wrong."
Just then, he could feel a wave of hot air against the nape of his neck, causing an explosion of cold chills to p.r.i.c.k him from head to toe.
"Boss, won"t you help me pick up the soap?"
Zhao Yao exhaled deeply.
"He"s managed to sneak up behind me just like that. He"s really starting to surpa.s.s my physical abilities," he started rambling to himself.
"Okay, Zhao Yao, stay calm."
"I"ll just have to switch to Matcha"s power. I won"t use it first. Perhaps I"m just overreacting."
"I"ll take it slow and pick up the soap slowly. As long as I don"t expose my -,"
"Boss, what are you doing?"
This time, Baiquan"s breath tickled his ear, as if he was literally right behind him. Every hair on Zhao Yao"s body stood on its end. He instantly activated TimeFreeze and got as far away from the bathroom as he could in 12 seconds. He was so terrified that he managed to reach his front door with a bit of time to spare.
There, he switched to Dust Ball"s power and fell into the extradimensional belly.
"F**k!" he swore, making a beeline for the reinforced steel cage.
He placed his foot against the Sphynx"s cat"s neck.
"What the f**k is your power? You better tell me everything. Why is Baiquan acting like a lecherous old man? Towards me?!" he demanded angrily.
The Sphynx took a look at him, then started chortling.
"It took you some time to find out, didn"t it? Now you"ve seen the true horror of my power. Those who use it will never be able to reproduce. With that, I can and I will exterminate your kind!" he exclaimed.
"Exterminate my kind?"
"Yes! My power enables you to grow endlessly stronger, but not without paying a price. Once your body starts transforming, your s.e.xual orientation will as well."
The Sphynx cat cackled deviously.
"As my power spreads and touches apostles everywhere, you will all be doomed to live and die without offspring! You will have no children to pa.s.s your powers on to. We will be free from your control. Us supercats will rule the world!"
"You evil little-! G.o.d, I don"t even know what to say. Just tell me how to reverse this!" Zhao Yao ordered.
"It cannot be reversed," the Sphynx revealed, now laughing maniacally, "Once gay, always gay. Your apostle"s never going to be the same again."
"You"re a c.o.c.ky little thing, aren"t you?"
Zhao Yao used Elizabeth"s power to unleash a tidal wave of imaginary p.o.o.p into the Sphynx"s laughing mouth. Within seconds, the cat was reduced to a twitching mess on the floor.
"Who"s laughing now, huh?"
His grim sense of satisfaction did not last. He might have taught the Sphynx a lesson, but that did not change the fact that Baiquan had been, well, changed.
"The problem isn"t that he"s gay. It"s that he"s making unwanted s.e.xual advances towards me! He"s gonna become too strong to fight off one day. This can"t do."
The Sphynx cat laughed weakly when he watched the myriad of worry and trouble that crossed his face. He launched another vengeful p.o.o.p attack in response.
"S**t Tsunami!"
The onslaught lasted for 30 disgusting seconds. As it drew to an end, the cat was lying flat on his back, shaking and foaming at the mouth.
The state the Sphynx was in turned out to be a moment of inspiration for Zhao Yao.
"Maybe Baiquan just needs a reminder that he likes girls. An immersive illusion could do the trick. He"s only been training for a couple weeks. I"m sure it"s reversible."
Zhao Yao narrowed his eyes as he pored through his mental repository for ideas.
Half an hour later, he quietly dived back into the real world. He entered his bedroom stealthily. There was a quiver in his ears as he tried to detect Baiquan"s location.
Before he could identify his whereabouts, the door slammed shut behind him.
Zhao Yao swiftly spun around, then took a few frightened steps back.
Baiquan lifted his fingers from the doork.n.o.b. He was now dressed in an unnecessarily tight muscle tee that showed off each curve and valley of his muscles.
"Boss? Where did you go?"
Zhao Yao had to stifle the scream that sat at the back of his throat. Baiquan was casting another one of those tender and docile looks his way.
"Don"t move. I have something to show you," he said through gritted teeth.
"What is it?" Baiquan asked innocently, tilting his head while batting his eyelids.
Zhao Yao wasted no time in unfurling his latest trick.
It had been specially designed to deal with Baiquan"s predicament. Instead of pulling him into just one illusion, Zhao Yao could plunge him into sensory overload. He hoped that would be enough to jolt Baiquan from his induced h.o.m.os.e.xuality.
Zhao Yao let out a determined shout, then unleashed a barrage of audio, images, and videos into his mind.
tek-06x, ofje-07x, ipz-95x, hodv-2103x, Sora Aoi, Yui Hatano, Kirara Asuka...
Line after line of mysterious file names and women"s names, along with the video footage embedded in them, were uploaded onto Baiquan"s mind.
The sudden onslaught of information stunned him into immobility.
Zhao Yao knew that it was time to finish him off. He launched himself at Baiquan and cupped his palms against his ears, sending one final blast of sensations.
"Yellow Tsunami!"
Baiquan"s eyes grew round like marbles. His body started twitching involuntarily, barely at first, but uncontrollably in no time. Violent spasms continued to course through him as he received a tsunami of film.
Zhao Yao watched as Baiquan collapsed in a heap onto the ground.
"Did it work? That was a decade"s worth of my favorites."
After three long minutes, Baiquan woke from the trance of decadence and desire. He got to his feet gingerly, face flushed. He could not look Zhao Yao in the eye when he spoke to him.
"Boss, what did you do to me?"
Zhao Yao recounted everything that the Sphynx cat told him.
Baiquan let out a sigh of relief at the end of the story.
"That would explain why I was feeling so weird recently. I don"t know what would happen if you didn"t step in, Boss."
"Are you sure you"re back to your usual self now?"
"Positive," Baiquan laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.
Verbal a.s.surance was not sufficient for Zhao Yao. He needed proof that Baiquan was straight as an arrow.
He waved a hand and conjured a photo of a beautiful and skimpily dressed woman. There was a bit of color on Baiquan"s cheeks when he looked at that image.
Zhao Yao then showed him a picture of muscular f**kboys in tiny tank tops. Baiquan"s facial response was one of judgmental disgust.
"Seems like you"re really back to normal," he concluded.
"I am and I"m glad. The side effect of this power is too much. Maybe I should stop borrowing it," Baiquan said.
"No, you should keep training. It"s freaking effective! Look at you!" Zhao Yao exclaimed.
He then pounded his chest.
"My Yellow Tsunami worked, so that"s how we can work around it. You"ll just have to watch p.o.r.n while you train!"
Zhao Yao paused.
"Let"s make it a minimum of two hours of p.o.r.n a day!" he added brightly.