Awakening the Divine Spark

To cover the quarter mile distance to the cliff island was scary and fun experience at the same time.

After Lee and Xiao Lian carried the catamaran to the water, they were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t that hard to leave the shore, except it went slower than expected.

They each sat at their own side and energetically paddled, trying to get through the waves, immediately getting wet all over. The water was cold and refreshing, but it looked like the crude catamaran will hold.

Neither of the boys know anything about seafaring, but it seemed that they had picked the wrong time of the day to start their short journey. Or maybe the current they were fighting against was this strong throughout the day, they had no clue.

In the end, a quarter mile is not that big of a distance and their vessel was small enough to be easily navigated towards the small beach below the cliff. The maritime adventure was short, but they were more tired than battling dreadtalons for a whole day.

Nevertheless, after pulling catamaran to a safe spot, Xiao Lian immediately began to climb the cliff.

It wasn’t hard to guess the fool in love was driven by an urge to leave impression on Qin Yujian. Lee wasn’t sure what exactly the guy was about to do, but they had stacked up enough food and fresh water for them to last till the end of the survival training, and he intended to use the time to cultivate.

After spending over a year in the library, Lee hadn’t found any cultivation techniques that could work with his peculiar condition. It was possible that those were more advanced, or maybe an elder could suggest something if he asked.

But to not jeopardize his future prospects he never divulged the fact that he had a couple of sparks. After spending so much time together with Xiao Lian, it was highly likely Lee’s friend had some kind of suspicions – one couldn’t simply shake off the part of Lee recovering from serious injuries overnight as a joke.

Xiao Lian might be naive, but he wasn’t a fool, thus Lee didn’t try to make up a random fake story.

Fortunately Xiao Lian never directly asked Lee about his condition, and the latter never mentioned it. Of course, Lee understood it was impossible to keep this secret forever, thus the main objective was to quickly increase his strength, deal with Victoria and afterwards slave this particular life away in the library.

***

While Lee began to meditate below, Xiao Lian climbed to the top of the island and secured there the rest of the ropes they had. Afterwards he began climbing up and down, leaving marks on the cliff wall, apparently preparing to carve something.

Lee already guessed this was his intention and could only pray Xiao Lian wouldn’t write something too cheesy, otherwise there was no coming back. Up until now they had done everything by the book, but it was easy to mess things up, especially considering that the result of his work will be seen by thousands of disciples.

From the blasts above and rocks falling all over the place, Lee quickly judged that he had chosen the wrong position to cultivate at.

Around a month ago he suggested that Xiao Lian would carve something romantic to Qin Yujian, but he thought the guy would make something pretty from a fist-size rock. Unfortunately, the fact that Xiao Lian misunderstood him didn’t matter, and the determination in the boy’s eyes was unshakable.

He continued to blast the cliff with his new sword technique and all Lee could do was to climb up the cliff himself and sit on the top to avoid an accidental rock falling on his head.

Actually Lee realized that Xiao Lian’s approach wasn’t the worst idea. Apart from trying to impress the girl, that is.

He was constantly using the elemental energy to clash with the rock that was much more resilient opponent compared to dreadtalons. Obviously it was a stationary target, but after the first half of the month dreadtalons also didn’t pose too much of a challenge. Thus currently Xiao Lian was actually going through an intense training.

***

Days went by with Lee meditating on the top of the cliff and Xiao Lian blasting it below. If not for the annoying sound and the vibration, it would’ve been the perfect place for retreat. The sound of wind and waves was calming, and the view was picturesque, although Lee only saw it during the meal time.

He was working on his own unique technique that would allow him to discharge large amounts of elemental particles in a single attack, something that surpassed what he and Xiao Lian used against dreadtalons.

He mostly meditated, but occasionally got up, did a few attacks with his sword against an imaginary opponent, and then sat back down and meditated again.

The two boys were engrossed each in their own thing and basically didn’t talk at all, although had the daily meals together. Lee had no clue whether more people had arrived at the west coast, finishing their training, but didn’t care. Xiao Lian would call him when he was done so they could go back.

Surprisingly the first person who talked to Lee wasn’t Xiao Lian.

He almost jumped off the cliff when he heard a man’s voice calling out to him, saying, "What in the world is he doing?"

After taking a deep breath to calm down, Lee glanced at the person next to him. It was the young man in the blue robe they saw at the meeting spot. His clothing was neat and dry, and Lee couldn’t figure out how could he have gotten to the island in any other way than swimming.

"It’s been over ten days!" The young man sounded clearly upset, "Did someone send you to annoy me? Or I’ve gone out with your sister, or something?"

"Sorry, senior brother!" Lee said, apologizing on Xiao Lian’s behalf.

"I’m junior elder, not a disciple!" The young man became even more pissed, but Lee could only stare at the guy in disbelief.

Being a junior elder implied the guy was already an elemental lord! And while he probably was much older, he clearly looked twenty, maybe twenty two years old.

’Must be some kind of pills!’ To not hurt his own ego too much, Lee tried to find a more acceptable explanation other than the guy being a genius.

"My apologies, junior elder!" Lee quickly got on his feet, and cupped fist, slightly bowing. No matter if the guy was a genius or not, he had godly powers compared to a nobody like him. In fact, Lunax, who also was an elemental lord, was worshiped as a god.

"This makes you hate the fire cultivators, doesn’t it?" The junior elder said, "They can’t appreciate silence and peace."

At that moment Xiao Lian climbed up to where they stood. He looked completely worn out, his poor clothing barely covering the intimate parts, but the determination in his eyes burned even brighter than the day they arrived here.

"Junior Elder Liang Yusheng!" Xiao Lian exclaimed in surprise, "You’re here!"

"Remarkable observation!" Junior elder snorted, "Are you done?"

"I ... I actually wanted to ask Brother Lee to lend me his sword ..." Xiao Lian helplessly looked at the broken item in his hand. In fact, judging by the fact that barely the handle was left it was almost impossible to tell it once was a sword.

Lee grinned, and without a second thought passed his short staff to Xiao Lian. Few days ago he noticed that his friend’s weapon was damaged and guessed this day would inevitably come.

Xiao Lian took it, murmured a few awkward words of apology and went back down, probably to break Lee’s sword as well.

Junior Elder Liang shook his head, and said, "He’ll break it!"

"I know." Lee said with a nod.

"Then why are you supporting this nonsense?" Junior elder asked.

Lee glanced at the youthful face of the junior elder, and sighed. Then said, "Have you ever been in love?"

Liang Yusheng gawked at the kid who was likely half his age, not knowing whether to laugh or smack him.

In the end, he sighed, and said, "My Healing Hall can heal physical injuries, but there is no cure for this ..."