There were only two days left until the New Year Celebration, and it was the day on which Leyn arrived, as well. Quin was still in the middle of his training, but naturally he had told Leyn where to go and he had also asked Fei to call him if a woman was looking for him.

“Hey!” Quin greeted her. Although almost a whole year had passed, there was nothing that changed about her, or at least not in Quin’s eyes. He did notice that she was wearing the earrings he had given her, and he was content with his choice as they looked really good on her.

Leyn stood there staring at him for a few moments and then said with a surprised look, “Hey! God, you look... A lot better!” She could not help but look at how much his body had improved since the last time they met.

“Yeah, thanks,” he said smiling and there was a hint of embarrassment on his face. “Hey, come I’ll show you the lake.”

“Wow, it looks beautiful,” she said as she looked around.

“Yeah, the scenery is quite nice. This is where I usually train and to be honest it’s a lot more enjoyable compared to our school’s track or facility.” Quin laughed.

“I can imagine that,” Leyn said and smiled at him.

“How about we take a walk around it? A lap around the lake is about half the school’s track length and it’s the route which I run each day,” Quin explained.

“Alright, that sounds good,” she answered.

They talked about a lot of things during their walk and Quin was really happy to finally be with one of his friends. There were numerous people he had a good relationship here in Hounxi, but those could not compare to his friendship with Leyn.

“So how are you?” Leyn asked with a concerned look.

“Well, to tell you the truth I couldn’t feel better!” Quin replied with great enthusiasm.

“Really?” she questioned him being a bit suspicious. “You promised me that you would tell me the truth, didn’t you?”

“Don’t worry,” he said with a laugh, “I wouldn’t lie to you, and especially not by that much. Do you think that somebody who’s on his deathbed would be so ripped with muscles like me?”

“That’s a bit of exaggeration, don’t you think?”

“Damn, I can’t even make a joke,” he replied with a long sigh and shook his head. Of course,  Quin knew that she was just teasing him so he played along.

“Hey, you should watch your mouth!” she said and give him a light slap on the back of his head.

“Ouch, are you trying to kill me?” he asked with a fake worried expression.

“Weren’t you the one who told me how strong you are? I thought then this would be nothing,” Leyn said and tried to make a surprised expression.

“You know, you’re not too good at lying either.” Quin burst out in a laugh and soon Leyn followed as well.

“But seriously, was what you had said true?” she asked.

“You know what? Come, I’ll show something,” he said and they started to walk toward the forest which was at the farther side of the lake.

“Alright, stay there.” Quin took a couple of steps away. “Shoot a few water balls at me. We’re about six or seven meters away from each other, so you don’t have to hold back.”

“What? No, there’s no way I’d try to harm you,” she protested. “I get that you got some extra strength but you’ve got no qi and I’m in the first level of Qi Culmination!”

“Don’t worry about that, I’m not crazy,” he said with a laugh. “I’m obviously telling you to do this because there’s no chance that it’ll harm me.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“But... I-- Sorry, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but I’ve seen you being hurt too many times already,” Leyn told her with a weak voice.

“Alright, then I’ll show you something different first. Come it’s only a minute of walk away.” Quin saw that things were not progressing toward the direction he thought they would have, and realized that if he was to continue, it would just make her feel bad.

He brought her to the place he left a couple of the things he used for measuring his strength, like the block of iron. Quin grabbed one of them and put it on the ground.

“You know what are these, right?” he asked her.

“Cubes made out of iron? What are they  for?”

Quin half-smirked and then punched straight through it the next moment, leaving a complete hole in the block.

“So, what do you think now?” Quin asked and grabbing it he gave it to her.

“Oh, this is really heavy,” Leyn said and she even had to use his Water Qi to be able to lift it. She observed it and had no doubt that it was truly made out of iron. “Wow, how did you do it? This is... You have to be at least in the last level of the Qi Condensation sub-stage to be able to pierce through iron, but you--”

“I’ll tell you later, but do you still have a problem with my earlier question?” Quin asked.

“I--” Leyn took a deep breath and after shaking her head said a bit reluctantly, “Okay, okay, I’ll do it but you have to promise me that you won’t be hurt by it!”

“I promise. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

“I really hope so, here it goes,” she said and started her spell.

The two water balls she shot out were easily evaded by Quin and left Leyn flabbergasted.

“How... Just how were you able to do it? I really didn’t hold back!” she asked, still shocked.

“Let’s just say that my body’s strength is almost comparable to the power of Qi Culmination sub-stage,” Quin told her with a smirk. Although he was not as confident as he had been previously and sometimes even felt embarrassed when being praised, his proud side did not entirely disappear. “Shoot another one at me and this time I won’t evade it. It will hurt a bit but don’t worry I know that it’s well within my limits.”

Even though she was still a bit reluctant to do it, after seeing his capabilities she believed him and did what he asked. The water ball crashed straight into his chest but he did not even move an inch, just stood there silently.

“Are you alright?” Leyn asked worriedly.

“Yeah, it did hurt a bit but compared to the pain that my damned main core caused, it’s not even a flea’s bite,” he replied and then took off his shirt and in the middle of his chest a circular shaped bruised could be seen.

“Let me heal that quickly,” Leyn said and was just about to start to heal him when Quin interrupted her.

“No need, thanks, it’s for another thing I wanted to show you... Or just show off,” he said with a laugh and walked to the lake’s shore, with Leyn following him confused. Quin sat down cross-legged to meditate and stayed like that for about two or three minutes. Then, he stood up and turned to Leyn but this time there was nothing on his chest, the bruise disappeared without a trace.

“Wow, I’ve never imagined that this lake would have such healing properties to it!” she exclaimed surprised.

“It’s not the lake, Leyn. Well, to be fair it really is the healing energy it’s emitting but it wouldn’t work for everyone,” he explained and then showed his right arm to her. “You see the difference? You heard what had happened to my right arm and how they thought that it was something irreversible.” Leyn looked at his arm and at him surprised. “I know, they didn’t exactly say this, but it was quite obvious. Anyways, as you can see, it’s in an even better condition than it had been. You know, there’re a few things I haven’t told you yet, and one of them is that when I arrived here my whole pinky finger and two phalanges of my ring finger were gone.”

Leyn looked at him confused and worried, but before she could say anything Quin continued. “I’ll tell you about it later if you’re interested, but the thing is that they’ve grown back in just two months.”

“How is that possible? I’ve never heard about anything like that, not even the greatest healers could regrow a lost limb!” It seemed that this day only brought surprises on top of other surprises for her.

“Yeah, I knew that, and I was shocked as well. Later, I decided to try it again, and while I know this sounds really stupid, I just had to try it. You know what happened? It grew back in even less time!” Quin said proudly. “I’ll show you, but don’t freak out please.”

“What do you mean don’t freak out?! You can’t do something like this, are you crazy?” Leyn asked, filled with worry.

“Hey, you freaked out the previous times as well but nothing happened, right? I know it sounds crazy and I’m quite selfish here, but I’ve been training for more than half a year now, and though I felt so happy and excited about my achievements I couldn’t show nor share it with anyone. Look, I’m not crazy, and as I’ve said it, I’ve tried it a couple of times and now a single phalanx can grow back in just a day.” Quin took out his a knife he usually kept on his belt and with a fast movement cut off a phalanx of his right pinky finger.

Leyn let out a small scream and said, “God, you really did it, let me heal it at least!”

“Did you miss what I’ve said?” he said with a calm smile and did not let her to heal him. “Look, not even half a minute has passed and it’s no longer bleeding.”

Leyn looked at him angrily, stood up and then went away.

Guess, it was a bit too much? He let out a sigh. Quin was aware that he had been too forceful this time, and although he could control himself when he asked her to shoot a water ball at him, this time his desire to show off prevailed.