7 Path of the Lilies

The water waves stopped after a while. In the middle of the lake, Lin Cai slowly opened her eyes. She looked at the others, who were around 100 meters away from her, with surprise. Why did they evade her?     

"You're awake?" Qin Zheng asked and looked at his senior sister.     

Lin Cai nodded. "Yep, what happened to them?"     

"You have enlightenment, so we're staying at a distance away to avoid getting affected. Is there anything different within your core?"     

"Hm?" Lin Cai inspected her body. She was astonished when she noticed that her core felt different than usual. The amount of Eon Energy inside was much more compared to before. She looked at Qin Zheng with a grin. "I'll be entering late stage soon. When will you have your breakthrough, Qin Zheng?"     

Qin Zheng frowned. He could sense that Lin Cai was provoking him, but he was not in a hurry. If his speed was too fast, he wouldn't be able to consolidate his strength further because of a shaky foundation.     

Besides, it was not like he couldn't at all.     

"I'll naturally have it when I'm ready." Qin Zheng walked towards the Emperor Stone and placed his hand on top of it. It felt warm, yet at the same time, it was cold. He smiled lightly. As expected of the metal that could only be found in a double environment like this.     

Lin Cai pursed her lips. "Don't blame me if you can't make any breakthrough then. You're slow, Qin Zheng."     

"You're slower than me," Qin Zheng said lightly. "Besides, you know that body enhancement specialization needs more time to breakthrough compared with other specialization, right?"     

"But control is the quickest, and you're the combination of both," Lin Cai grinned.     

"That just means I'll take a bit more time. Don't worry about me."     

"I'm not worried about you. I'm more worried that you can't keep up with me and may end up lacking behind."     

Qin Zheng arched his eyebrows. He smirked lightly. "Want to know whether you can defeat me when you're one stage above me?"     

"Bring it on!" Lin Cai said with a grin. She was also itching to give Qin Zheng a good beating when possible.     

Laughing lightly, Qin Zheng took out a ring and pulled the Emperor Stone inside the ring.     

"Is it alright to keep it now?" Ye Jiao asked. She had finished filling her core with Eon Energy, so she stopped for a while.     

Qin Zheng nodded. "Emperor Stone needs to be kept for at least 5 years before it can be used. This Spatial Ring time flow will flow at the same time as outside, so I just need to keep it away and only use it when it's time."     

"Huh? Spatial Ring will have the time as outside? I thought that the time flow is extremely slow to the point that you can use it to store food and didn't have to worry about them decaying."     

"You can adjust the time for the Spatial Ring," Lin Cai remarked as she swam to the shore. Her small arms were playing with the water a bit.     

"Really?"     

"Yes, you can adjust the time flow in the Spatial Ring, but you can't adjust the time flow in a storage bracelet because the way they are constructed is a bit different," Qin Zheng moved to the shore again.     

Ye Jiao blinked. This was the first time she came to know that the Spatial Ring was actually much more complicated. Her eyes landed on the two rings in Qin Zheng's hand. One was on the young man's finger while the other one was placed on his palm.     

"How many Spatial Rings do you have?"     

"Just two."     

"Just?"     

"I have much more storage bracelet that I collect from my enemies," Qin Zheng sat down on the shore once more. He took out a dark blue colored rock from his Spatial Ring. "Cai, this is Water Haze. I found this near the Emperor Stone just now and many more around the area."     

Lin Cai frowned. "Call me Senior Sister Lin when we're outside. We're not just doing missions together again."     

"I'm at the same rank as you, so I should be allowed to use your real name," Qin Zheng smiled. "Besides, do you really want us to keep on calling you as a senior? It'll be easy for people to guess that we're coming from the same academy."     

"Qin Zheng."     

"Yes."     

"You're annoying," Lin Cai blurted and stuck out her tongue. She turned around. "I'll start searching, so you better keep your promise to make the armor when you can start making them."     

"Can you start making?" Ye Jiao repeated Lin Cai's words. She turned her head to look at Qin Zheng. "Does it mean that you can't make armor, Senior Brother Qin?"     

"Not yet," Qin Zheng admitted. "I can make the parts, but I'm still not good enough to create one together."     

Ye Jiao blinked. "Can't you stitch them together?"     

"…No."     

"Why?" Qin Zheng didn't reply and looked away. Seeing the young man's expression, Ye Jiao had the feeling that she could guess the reason. "You can't do needlework?"     

"Is it that weird for a man to be unable to do needlework?"     

"Nope." Ye Jiao shook her head. In any case, she never even thought that Qin Zheng would be able to do something like that. He might have been showing to her a lot of things that amazed her, but things like needlework didn't seem to suit him.     

"If you want, I can help you stitch the parts together. I can do needlework," Ye Jiao volunteered. She had learned how to do them ever since she was young because it was necessary.     

Qin Zheng pondered. "I'll think of the design first."     

"Ok."     

"Also, Jiao'er, you might want to absorb more rather than searching for Water Haze. That egg of yours needs the water element Eon Energy, right?"     

Egg?     

It took Ye Jiao a few seconds before she recalled the egg she had gotten back in Spring Island. Qin Zheng was with her and obviously helped her a bit when she was about to take it back, so he knew.     

"Right!" Ye Jiao smiled brightly. "Thank you, Senior Brother Qin."     

"It's my pleasure."     

With that, Ye Jiao sat down and started to absorb the Eon Energy once more. The egg has almost finished digesting all the water element Eon Energy she pushed to it before, so now Ye Jiao started to give more. Eon Energy started to move as they entered her body at rapid speed.     

Bang!     

Sudden waves of Eon Energy rippled the air surface. Lu Wan turned his head and saw Qi Huan had opened his eyes. There was a layer of water around his body, seemingly welcoming him.     

"Qi… Qi Huan, d-did you…?" Lu Wan pointed his finger to Qi Huan in disbelief.     

"Rank 4," Qi Huan continued his junior brother's words expressionlessly. He didn't have the time to bother with Lu Wan as he inspected his body.     

"WHAT? BUT YOU WERE JUST LATE STAGE?"     

SMACK!     

Lin Cai hit Lu Wan on the back of his head. "You're too noisy. Also, congratulations Qi Huan."     

"Thank you, Senior Sister Lin."     

Qi Huan sat down near the lake as his mind pondered. What Lu Wan said was correct. He was just late stage not long ago, but he had advanced directly to rank 4. Thinking about his path, he smiled lightly. It seemed that once someone had already made their decision for their path, they would directly bypass the peak stage and enter Rank 4.     

It was not bad at all.     

On the side, Wang Jun opened his eyes for a brief moment. He glanced at Qi Huan then closed it again. No one managed to see his complicated look in that short time period.