After meeting up with Yu Rou and Xia Jingyi inside Cultivation Online, Yuan asked them, "You want to participate in a contest?"
"Yes, there will be other players there as well." Yu Rou nodded.
"Are you sure? I assume there will be a lot of players there since there is going to be a free Earth-rank technique." Yuan said.
"Well, it won't hurt to take a look at the place. If there are too many people, we can leave." Yu Rou said.
"Alright. How far is this place? Do we need to take a carriage there?"
"No, it's only about a two-hour walk from here."
They proceeded to leave Seashell City shortly after.
A little over two hours later, they arrived at the city.
However, they were immediately baffled by the number of people there.
"Heavens…" Yu Rou mumbled in a dazed voice when she saw the sea of people outside the city waiting to go inside.
If there were this many people outside the city, she can only imagine how many people were inside.
"I have underestimated the value of an Earth-rank technique… probably because of you, brother…" Yu Rou sighed a moment later.
"Do you still want to participate in the contest?" Yuan asked her with a smile on his face.
"Uhhh… I will be shocked if we can enter the city before the contest is over," she sighed again.
"What else do you want to do now?"
"Well… I kind of want to study the technique I got yesterday."
"Should we go to the Cultivators' Haven?"
"Nah. I'm getting bored of the bland room inside the Cultivators' Haven. We can study outside for a change, and it's not like we're cultivating, so a little disturbance should be fine. There's a lake about a mile away. We can go there instead."
"Alright. Let's go." Yuan nodded.
Sometime later, they approached a beautiful lake with sparkling water.
"Wow, this place is beautiful." Yu Rou said.
"This place kind of reminds me of a school trip we had last year." Xia Jingyi said.
"Oh, you mean the one we had towards the end of the year? I remember, but the water there wasn't this clear."
"The atmosphere here is quite refreshing…" Yuan looked at the lake with a look of admiration.
"This is your first time coming to a place like this, right?" Yu Rou said to him.
"Yes… Our parents would never take us to these kinds of places, after all." He said with a bittersweet smile.
"By the way, where's Miss Lan?" Xia Jingyi asked when she realized that she was gone.
"Oh, she's right here," he said while pointing to the snake bracelet around his wrist.
"Huh?" Xia Jingyi raised her eyebrows upon hearing this.
"Come out for a bit, Yingying."
The next moment, the white bracelet around his arms began moving, before transforming into Lan Yingying.
Xia Jingyi's jaw dropped after seeing her transformation.
"Y-You're not human?" Xia Jingyi asked.
"No, I am a Divine Serpent," Lan Yingying said.
"Do you want to see my beast form?"
Xia Jingyi nodded with curiosity.
"I also want to see it!" Yu Rou said.
Lan Yingying then transformed into her serpent form.
"Whoa! You're very big!" Yu Rou was dumbfounded when Lan Yingying transformed into a massive white snake larger than even a bus, almost like a mini train.
"You have very pretty scales…" Xia Jingyi said with a dazzled look on her face.
"Thank you."
"Hmm? Jingyi, do you like snakes? I thought most girls hate snakes." Yu Rou said.
"Yes, I like snakes. I find them very cute. In fact, I have a pet snake at home." Xia Jingyi nodded.
"Really? I should visit your home one day."
"You can come whenever." Xia Jingyi said.
Sometime later, Lan Yingying returned to her human form.
"I'm going to study the technique now." Yu Rou said to them before taking a seat by the lake and retrieving one of the two Heaven-rank techniques she'd recently acquired.
Xia Jingyi followed her and also started studying her new technique.
"What about you, Yingying? What kind of technique did you take?" Yuan asked her afterward.
"Oh, it's a flame technique. I was hoping it'd synergize with my Sacred Fire," she said.
Lan Yingying then took a seat somewhere in the shades under a tree and began studying the technique.
"I'm also going to study my technique," Meixiu said before going to where Yu Rou and Xia Jingyi were studying.
"Since everyone is studying, I might as well study too, but I kind of want to enjoy the scenery for a bit." Yuan proceeded to lay beside the lake and looked at the sparkling water for a whole hour before he started studying his own technique.
After studying for a few hours, Lan Yingying was the first to learn her new technique.
She then walked to the lake and started practicing her new technique.
Lan Yingying took a deep breath, then she proceeded to summon her Sacred Fire on her palms.
A white ball of fire appeared, and Lan Yingying controlled the Sacred Fire, transforming the ball of fire into the shape of a lotus.
Once she was satisfied with the shape and its consistency, Lan Yingying tossed the lotus into the lake.
Whoosh!
The instant the lotus made of Sacred Fire touched the water, it spread out and covered a large portion of the lake in a sea of white flames.
This attracted the attention of everyone there.
"Wow, what beautiful white flames…" Xia Jingyi mumbled in a low voice, seemingly mesmerized by it.
"Look at the flames! It's not going out even though it's touching the water! I have never seen anything like this before!" Yu Rou exclaimed when she noticed the fire wasn't going out as it laid on top of the water, making the lake look as though it was actually on fire.
However, Lan Yingying wasn't satisfied with the results, so she continued to create these flaming lotuses until she ran out of spiritual energy.
By the end of the day, Lan Yingying was capable of creating two lotuses at a time.
"What kind of technique did you learn?" Yu Rou couldn't help but ask her towards the end of the day.
"It's a technique called Fiery Lotus. It significantly enhances the power of flames, but it consumes a lot of spiritual energy," she said.
"Really? It didn't look like it consumes a lot of spiritual energy because you've been shooting them all day." Yu Rou said.
"That's because I made sure to limit the strength of the technique and focused on mastering the control first, and if I used the technique at its full strength, it'd disturb you guys."
"Can you use its full strength now? I am curious."
Lan Yingying nodded.
She then created another lotus using her Sacred Fire, but it was much larger than all of her previous lotuses today.
In fact, compared to the palm-sized lotuses she has been practicing with throughout the day, this one was as large as a large watermelon.
Once she'd poured enough spiritual energy into the lotus, Lan Yingying tossed it towards the lake.
The next moment, the lotus exploded into a fiery hell that consumed the entire lake, illuminating the somewhat dark place.
"Wow! So pretty!" Yu Rou said as she watched the lake burn with white flames that danced on the surface of the water.
Sometime later, Yu Rou and Xia Jingyi logged off after saying their goodbyes.
Yuan and Meixiu also logged off shortly after.
The following morning, Yuan and the others continued to study their techniques by the lake, and they would continue to do this for almost an entire week.
The second person to finish learning her new technique was Meixiu.
On the third day, she started trying out the movement technique, dancing around the place with stiff movements at first, eventually getting better.
"Xiao Hua, can I borrow some of your time? I don't want to bother him since he's studying." Meixiu approached Xiao Hua on the fourth day.
Xiao Hua nodded and followed Meixiu to a spacious area by the lake.
"I would like to test out my movement technique. Can you try hitting me with something?" Meixiu asked Xiao Hua a moment later.
Xiao Hua nodded and retrieved a sword from her storage ring.
Meixiu immediately became nervous.
Seeing Xiao Hua wielding a sword that was as long as her body was a weird experience.
"D-Do you have anything else?"
Xiao Hua shook her head, and then she said, "Don't worry, Xiao Hua won't hit you."
"Okay…" Meixiu decided to trust Xiao Hua, and she took a long and deep breath to calm down.
"Are you ready?" Xiao Hua asked a moment later.
"Yes." Meixiu nodded with a focused look on her face.
Xiao Hua then kicked her feet, closing their distance instantly.
Once she was close enough, Xiao Hua swung the sword at Meixiu.
Whoosh!
The blade narrowly missed Meixiu.
However, Xiao Hua didn't stop and continued to strike at her.
Of course, Xiao Hua adjusted her speed to Meixiu's level. If she moved any quicker, Meixiu wouldn't be able to dodge it at all.
"Ah!"
Meixiu accidentally tripped a few minutes into their training, but there was a sword flying at her neck.
Meixiu subconsciously closed her eyes and prepared for the worst.
However, nothing happened even a moment later.
Meixiu slowly opened her eyes, and to her surprise, the blade stopped a few inches away from her neck.
"Are you okay?" Xiao Hua asked her in a calm voice.
"Yes. Let's continue." Meixiu said after getting up.
Xiao Hua nodded.
They continued to practice shortly after, and Meixiu's movements grew quicker and smoother as time progressed.