Quin became eighteen years old in June, and as this meant that he had stepped into adulthood, his mother organized a big birthday party for him, inviting all of their friends and acquaintances. Although he was very happy, there still was a bit of sadness in him as well, because he could not celebrate it with Leyn.

The celebration lasted for a whole day and at the end of it Quin was so full that he could not even do his usual training the next day, and had to rest. He had never eaten this much, and made a promise to himself that he never would again.

As he spent his days training, time passed quickly. Summer and autumn went by and there were only a few weeks left until the New Year Celebration, which he eagerly waited.

Leyn came just like the previous year, and stayed there for a month. He had waited for it for an entire year, and felt truly happy while she was in Hounxi with him. Parting was hard as always, but her life was back at Crows’ Road and there was nothing he could do about it.

For a few weeks he felt rather downcast, but fortunately his mother was there for him, and that made it quite a bit easier. She did not really have anything back in Crows’ Road, and as her only child was here in Hounxi, she decided that she would live here as well.

His mother was the same as she had been in the summer, filled with joy and energy. The time she did not spend with Quin she spent with Fei; talking, visiting various places or just going on trips in nature.

It was during the next summer, a couple of days after his nineteenth birthday, that he was finally able to completely submerge himself into the lake without any major backlashes. Although the improvement of his body had not been as significant in the past one year and half, he did manage to increase the strength of his arms to the point where he could lift a hundred kilograms more.

Strangely though, no significant change happened during the first week, despite him spending a great period of time in the lake bathing in the dense wild energy that would have been lethal for nearly anyone else. He had waited each day with great anticipation, but when he observed his body, it felt as if his cells and organs just were not able to absorb a sizeable portion of the energy.

During the time he was completely submerged within the lake, he felt a sudden change occurring in his body just as he began to worry.

Quin’s frequent meditation during his stay in Hounxi improved his mental capacity significantly, which in turn enabled him to be able to truly inspect his body, including his organs and cells, and feel what they were doing.

What’s happening? Why does it feel like my body is about to explode?

When he focused on his cells he discovered that each of them were vibrating wildly and it seemed like they wanted to explode out of him.

He started to become a bit scared while experiencing this whole situation, but he did not leave the lake. Despite his initial fear, he stayed submerged, just as his instincts -- unlike the one connected to the egg -- were telling him.

Of course, he wasn’t a fool and was usually quite careful, especially after having to experience how the egg inside his head had wanted to take over the control of his mind. Thus, he stayed at the border of the lake some time, inspecting what was happening.

It was a wild, rumbling, yet at the same time gentle, calming, and reassuring feeling, and it told him that everything was going to be fine. Quin somehow knew that he was safe and he also started to feel like he had to wade deeper to find what he was searching for, the key for his breakthrough.

He listed a lot of reasons for and against listening to this calling, but in the end what made him comply was this sensation which became associated to these feelings and instincts.

It had the exact same pattern and aura as what he had previously observed in the lake’s healing energy. It was a truly shocking thing for him, as it looked like the lake itself was speaking to him.

Despite knowing that it may very well be some kind of malicious machination, he felt that he could trust the lake, so he started to swim deeper and deeper to its center.

It was not an incredibly big or deep lake, but the energy got denser and denser toward its center, and Quin felt like that increased the density of the water as well, effectively slowing him down.

He stopped after a while when it felt like he was at the right place. The wild, healing energy here was unimaginably strong and dense, and even Quin started to wonder how he was still able to stay there without the energy overloading his body.

Quin sat down on the bottom of the lake cross-legged and started to meditate, while also paying close attention to what was happening to his body.

His cells were vibrating in an even wilder manner, but he noticed that they were absorbing a lot more energy than before. It looked like he was sitting inside a vortex, a vortex that was pumping all of the dense healing energy through his damaged core and body.

Gradually, the vibrations slowed down, after which he became utterly shocked as his cells suddenly started to grow. It continued for a few moments until he felt a pop throughout his body. The shells of his cells cracked and exploded, giving way to something new. They were cells similar to his previous ones, but they had a slight tone of azure to them, and Quin felt that they were a lot stronger than before.

However, it did not stop there. These new cells started to grow once again, and after reaching a point in their size, their shells cracked and exploded the same way as before. Interestingly, the new cells always shrunk back to a smaller size before they started to grow again.

This cycle repeated for what felt like a rather long time, and each new generation of cells had more of an azurish tint in them, and were stronger than the previous one.

At first, he was a bit afraid and gritted his teeth to prepare for the pain, but it did not come. Instead, the only thing he felt was a soft sensation filling his body.

The more time he spent like that, and the deeper he sank into his meditative state, the more he was in harmony with the lake and its wild healing energy. It was the first time that he could feel it so clearly, and became completely submerged in this sensation. He could feel that the energy flowed beautifully, but in a strange yet mesmerizing pattern.

The center of the lake was just above him, and with each of its pulsation, a new wave of energy flooded him. Gradually, he started to see more and more of its pattern and then at some time he was completely aware of it.

It was a truly strange thing, he knew that he would never be able to put it into words, nor would he be able to draw it on a canvas, yet he was more familiar with it than the back of his hand.

As he became more and more attuned to it, he started feel something that he could only compare to an emotion or maybe to a desire. He pondered and searched his mind for a long time on what this could be, until there was a single feeling left inside of him, and he knew that he had found it. Though he was in a state of perfect tranquility, the feeling he got from the lake was completely different.

Emptiness.