Awakening the Divine Spark

Turns out it wasn’t that hard to make a raft that could carry five people. Lee finally found the use for the ropes that until now had only been wasting space in his bag and before noon the youths were already floating in the middle of the river.

The girls were slightly anxious – the memory of Lee’s condition after he crawled out of the water two days ago was still fresh. Lee and Xiao were slightly better, but felt uncomfortable nevertheless. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

On the other side they had one last lunch together and went separate ways, despite the objections raised by Ling Xiaotao. Apparently she had taken fancy in Lee who during the past days kind of became her toy to play with. Of course, the games were only oral, but conversations with him felt fun and refreshing.

Lee didn’t care much about the young girl’s whims and was more worried about Xiao Lian becoming increasingly disheartened. He had to get Qin Yujian out of his sight before the boy did something stupid.

***

After they were alone, Lee could finally join Xiao Lian in killing dreadtalons, but their usual cheerful atmosphere was gone. The guy was constantly lost in thoughts, outwardly depressed.

When Lee asked if anything was wrong, the answer was I’m fine, but even if he was, he wasn’t fun at all.

On the morning of the third day after they split up with the girls, Xiao Lian said, "Brother Lee! I need your help with something."

’Finally!’ Lee inwardly cheered, but out loud asked, "What’s up?"

"I want to ... no, I need to get to the west coast as soon as possible." Xiao Lian said, "Can we get there before anyone else?"

"You know we’ll wait there for a long time, right?" Lee asked.

"Mhm." Xiao Lian nodded without explaining.

Lee thought for a bit and actually wasn’t against the idea. He was kind of fed up with the dreadtalons and picking roots also felt redundant. He could find a way to make more contribution points in the sect and even that wasn’t his first priority.

He wanted to get back to the library to memorize more cultivation and combat techniques, no matter how basic they were. Moreover, it was highly likely that soon he’ll be allowed to copy more advanced stuff, thus running around and killing beasts in the middle of nowhere was silly.

The time was much better spent while cultivating and trying to understand what was going on with his two sparks. He was still generating excess elemental energy and to learn how to control it should’ve been his priority from the start.

***

From that day onward the survival training Lee and Xiao Lian experienced changed completely. Apart from the nighttime when they had short period of rest, the spent days constantly running towards west no matter whether they ran through forests, tundra or plains.

They crossed rivers and swamps, climbed mountains and cliffs, and were on the move despite the cold rain or occasional hail.

Turns out this was also a fun way to spent the time.

At first they got tired pretty fast, but then realized they could use the elemental energy within to fuel their run. Neither understood how it worked exactly, but Lee’s guess was that by directing the energy from sparks to his lower extremities, his steps became lighter and faster. How Xiao Lian did it, though, he had no idea.

The dreadtalons also were a challenge during the first days. But pretty soon they found out that if you kill a couple from a pack and run away, the rest will chase after you for a short while, but then return to feast on their fallen kin.

If seen from above, the two resembled small dots that rapidly advanced towards west, on the way occasionally exploding in clouds of gore, but never stopping.

They arrived at the ocean in less than a month, but unfortunately they weren’t met with the nice and sunny beach they started on. This side of the continent, at least the spot where Lee and Xiao Lian arrived to, was dark and depressing, with very little vegetation, and mostly consisting of rocks.

At first they were confused how to find the spot they were supposed to leave the place from, but after a while found a larger, nine feet tall rock that had an arrow carved on it.

It clearly showed the direction they were supposed to go, and after half a day, following the arrows carved on other rocks, they arrived at a place that had a rock that actually had Meeting spot written on it.

Below it sat a young man in his mid-twenties, dressed in a fancy blue robe. One didn’t have to be a genius to realize that it was the inner disciple assigned to welcome those who were finished with the survival training, but both boys left the man meditate in peace.

Their, or rather – Xiao Lian’s attention was drawn by the tall cliff a quarter mile from the coast. Apparently this was what Senior Sister He Zhenzhu meant when describing the meeting point.

"Brother Lee. I need to get there." Xiao Lian said.

Even without the grave tone, from the context alone Lee had the urge to slap the guy on the back of his head. Didn’t he see the huge waves crashing at the bottom of the cliff? And that was something to worry about if they were capable of getting there through the unruly waters.

"You do remember those things that almost ate me alive in the river?" Lee asked, trying to appeal to the last bits of the common sense in his friend.

"Sorry, Brother Lee. I have to!" Xiao Lian insisted, not taking his eyes off the cliff.

Lee had no clue what the guy was up to, but after all the running it was a nice challenge to finish the survival training with.

He thought for a bit while looking around, and then said, "It’s doable. But you’ll have to carve a couple of bigger things than spoons."

"Good!" For the first time in days, Xiao Lian happily smiled.

Unlike the eastern side of the continent where they started, this place had only rocks and no forest. There were few lone trees, though, and Lee had eyed a couple of them.

They cut the trees down, removed the branches and in the remaining stumps Lee instructed Xiao Lian to carve. They began shaping the logs into rough canoe forms, hollowing out the centers.

The problem was that the only tool each of them possessed were their swords, and despite Han Li’s incredible craftsmanship, they weren’t tools meant to process wood.

Lee wasn’t delusional and didn’t hope to cross the unruly waters in these canoe-like objects even if it was only a quarter of a mile.

They positioned the two crude canoes parallel to each other, about four feet apart. Using the sturdiest branches and the ropes that they had, they lashed the canoes together, creating a stable platform between them.

Of course, to call it stable was a stretch, but that was the best they were capable of.

The crude catamaran had to be more stable and balanced than a regular boat, and should be able to hold, at least one way.

Lee didn’t know what Xiao Lian was up to, but clearly it had something to do with Qin Yujian. He didn’t ask if the boy knew what he was doing or was sure he wanted to go through with it. He helped to push the catamaran in the water, praying they wouldn’t get eaten alive by some sea monster on the way.

The waves crushing against the cliff were scary, but there was a spot, a narrow beach, probably thirty yards wide, that formed a natural cove. Cliffs were rising tall on both its sides, and waves crushed heavily against them, but that one beach looked like a safe spot, almost resembling an entrance to the island.

It was just enough for the catamaran to safely arrive, although, Lee wasn’t sure how they were supposed to get back afterwards.