"Get some sleep, Lynne. There's no need to keep waiting. He won't be visiting us tonight." Old man Dwight said.
"I...I wasn't waiting for anyone... I just don't feel like sleeping yet..." Lynne denied, but the blush on her face exposed her intentions.
"Hahaha... Alright... Don't stay up too late." Dwight shook his head as he retired to his bedroom. His granddaughter just couldn't be honest with her feelings. No one understood his granddaughter better than he did.
Her parents were rarely home since they started working on property development projects in other cities away from the Capital and had she was neglected. Their time was fully occupied with managing their Cromwell's Real Estate empire. If one was to argue who was at fault for the distant feelings they shared, her grandfather would be the one to blame.
Dwight was obsessed with alchemy and had zero interest in taking over the family business. While his father, Lynne's great grandfather was disappointed, he still chose to respect his son's choice. Afterall succeeding the business can only guarantee their family's stability, but an alchemist would allow them to prosper to new heights.
Lynne's father was chosen to succeed the family business in Dwight's stead. Lynne's father did not fail his grandfather's expectation by proving to be a very talented in the real estate business and was able to expand their Cromwell's Real Estate outside, which was originally limited to within the Capital.
Seeing such a competent successor, Lynne's great grandfather was able to lay down the burdens in his heart and passed away peacefully from natural aging a few years later.
Sitting on the soft cushy sofa quietly in the dark, Lynne was seen exercising her control over water with an absent mind. She was disappointed that Leon did not pay them a visit, but she was not idle while she was waiting. She been pushing to breakthrough to the 3rd. She felt threatened by Rachel's presence and her competitive spirit was ignited. She didn't want to be inferior to Rachel, but she had to accept the current reality that whether it was status, strength, looks and even bearing, Rachel was superior to her in all aspects.
Status couldn't be changed, but looks could be improved with makeup, bearing could change with practice and strength could be improved with hard work. However, she wouldn't force herself to change in so many aspects as it would make her seem fake. Focusing on the improvement of her strength was enough for her. Each breakthrough not only improves her strength, but also her confidence. She did not need anything else to prove her worth. One should learn to be independent and mustn't rely on their family background.
It was fortunate that her grandfather had given her a large portion of the awakening pills. She had already taken two pills. One to breakthrough to the 2nd step and another one after reaching the 2nd step. Striving for quick success, Lynne threw caution to the wind and swallowed another two pills simultaneously in order to breakthrough to the 3rd step.
The medicinal efficiency immediately flooded her body and a burning sensation started swelling up into her throat.
She instantly regretted her action as she tries her best to absorb the medicinal efficiency and suppress the sensation. She knew something went wrong the moment she started feeling pain in her body. Two pills proved to be too much for her body to handle.
Her body temperature started rising rapidly and sweat trickled down her forehead as she tried to endure. Her vision blurred and consciousness grew hazy as she started bleeding from her nose.
"This is really bad." She wiped her blood and thought before passing out on the sofa.
...
"Boss, you're back." Manager Doug greeted Leon as he walked in the nightclub.
"Erm... the 'package' is on the underground floor."
Giving manager Doug a weird look. He was expecting the person to have been delivered. Leon thought manager Doug's choice of words to describe a person was interesting.
"Mm, the team stationed at Grand Serenity Hotel has been wiped out. Seen some people over to clean up the corpses and temporarily take charge of the business there."
"Right away, Boss." Manager Doug complied, leaving Leon to head underground alone.
When he laid eyes on the 'package', he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Package was quite the accurate description.
Alroy's bones were crushed, making his limbs very floppy and easy to bend in any directions. Leon assumed that the men delivering feared that Alroy would awaken during the short trip and decided to tie him up for their own sense of security.
The unconscious Alroy in front of him had been curled and roped up into a box-like shape.
The scene was quite grotesque. Definitely not good to be seen by children.
He thought his men was quite comical. The person was a fire-user. The ropes would not bind him.
Leon chuckled before shaking his head of unnecessary thoughts and placed his palm on Alroy's head.
His divine sense dived past the glabella and straight to the soul core, where Alroy's fireseed resided.
Leon always thought something was wrong when he had awakened as a 1st step fire-user.
With his understanding of fire laws, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he could shoot straight into transcendence with it. But he did not and remained at the 1st step, which baffles him.
There must be some other condition that had not been met yet before he could advance his level. For example; intimacy with the fire laws or establishing a stronger connection. After all, his own cultivation was not high enough to come in contact with the fire laws on his own. It had only been made possible due to humans possessing such a miraculous awakening ability.
The fireseed in front of him no doubt contained the answers to his questions or at least it should give him some insights into his doubts.
But the precondition was if he can obtain the fireseed and absorb it. With no good methods on hand, Leon used the most primitive method; brute force. He sent in his Pseudo-Grandmist energy and wrapped around the fireseed like a net. When the Pseudo-Grandmist energy contacted the seed, Leon almost lost control of his energy.
Ssss.... The fireseed made hissing sound as it started burning up his energy and depleting his reserves. Leon yanked the fireseed out of Alroy's head quickly. Luckily, his energy isn't just any ordinary energy and was quite tenacious, otherwise it would have been like adding oil to the fire, powering the fireseed. Leon sweated at the thought.
"AHHHH!!!" Alroy issued a painful cry as the fireseed was teared away from his head, cutting his connection to the fire laws and damaging his soul core. His body stumped back to the floor with a thump, eyes open but lifeless. He was still alive but brain-dead. The fireseed fried his soul core when it was torn away from his control.
Leon immediately swallowed the fireseed to prevent it from dissipating back into the world.
Leon had executed his move in a swift manner, but couldn't stop half the fireseed from being lost.
The remaining half of the fireseed broke down in fragments as it flowed through his system. Leon directed it straight to his own fireseed. Without having to do anything further, the fragments were attracted to his fireseed on its own like magnet and began overlaying it piece by piece.
His fireseed shared a profound connection to his soul core and the information from the fragments were able to flow into his mind.
When the fragments fused and became one with his fireseed, it became bigger and brighter than before.
A pleasant feeling washed over him as he entered the 2nd step awakening.
Leon indulged himself in the pleasant feeling for a bit before opening eyes. His eyes shined with understanding as his doubts were cleared.
Like divine practice require refining energy, the fireseed was the source of his awakening powers and needed refining. In order to strengthen it quickly, he had to feed it fire elements and refine it. The higher the quantity, the greater the increase in strength and the higher the level of refinement, the stronger the power is on a qualitative level.
With his high understanding of the fire laws, he would be to refine his fireseed to a very high level and grant himself higher-quality fire.
In other words, even if he was at the same step as his opponents, his fire would be superior to his opponent's.
"Phew..." Leon exhaled a breath of turbid air as he looks at the lifeless Alroy. Leon broke his neck and ended his life after he outlived his uses. There wasn't cold-blooded person but there was no sympathy in his eyes.
Living as a retard was no different to being alive while being dead inside. It was better to end his miserable life. But then again, Leon would still kill him all the same regardless of his state.. He had too much blood on his hands.