Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 57: Breakthrough
Chapter 57: Breakthrough

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Huang Jiahui panicked as she saw Wang Shishi faint. Putting down her chopsticks, she briskly walked over. “Should we call an ambulance? She just fainted out of the blue.”

“Hold up! Don’t come near!” Luo Yuan quickly stopped the approaching Jiahui. He noticed that her hair too was floating as she walked over.

Huang Jiahui noticed the oddity of the situation and was shocked when she touched her hair. It took her a while to respond, “What’s happening? Why is our hair floating?” She seemed to have thought of something as she asked, “Is it possible that Shishi has evolved?”

Luo Yuan placed Wang Shishi down on the floor gently and nodded, “I’m afraid so! Let’s move back a little. I can feel the energy increasing incessantly. We don’t want anyone to get injured.”

Both of them moved a few meters back, but their eyes never left Wang Shishi who was still lying on the floor.

An invisible energy seemed to surround her as the air around her looked fuzzy. As the energy got stronger, the chopsticks on the table were the first to start floating in the air. The plates followed.

A few minutes later, the chairs started rocking before slowly hovering into the air.

The energy spread gradually until it reached the two of them.

Luo Yuan felt a little lighter too and was surprised to feel himself float upwards. His hair stood straight as if he’d been electrocuted, the pulling sensation on his scalp actually hurting. Looking at Huang Jiahui, who seemed even more pained, he quickly said, “Don’t stay in here, head outside!”

Huang Jiahui knew she could not help much by staying so she agreed, “Alright, be careful!”

She looked pale as she moved towards the door, staying close to the wall. The moment she touched the doorknob though, the unusual phenomenon disappeared.

Everything that had been floating in mid-air dropped in an instant, plates and vases shattering as random objects and garbage were scattered all over the living room.

With a groan, Wang Shishi slowly regained her senses. When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to see the mess around the room. She turned to Huang Jiahui and Luo Yuan, who were standing further away, and asked, “What happened? Why am I lying on the floor?”

“You don’t remember?” Huang Jiahui asked curiously, relieved that she had returned to normal.

Wang Shishi could only remember her awful headache before she had blacked out. Shaking her head, she asked Luo Yuan, “Brother Luo, what happened?”

“Nothing important. I have news for you though, both good and bad. Which ones do you want to hear first?” Luo Yuan replied with a smile.

Wang Shishi looked anxious as she hesitated, “I guess… the bad ones?”

“The bad news is you’re cleaning up all this mess in the living room tonight!” Luo Yuan laughed.

Wang Shishi sighed in relief. “What about the good news?” she asked, pursing her lips.

“The good news is you’re the one who caused all this mess, which means you’ve successfully evolved!” Luo Yuan said.

Wang Shishi was stunned. Noticing Huang Jiahui’s envious gaze, she suddenly felt delighted and lost her ability to form coherent sentences, “Brother Luo, you mean I... I’m now… I’m evolved?”

She still looked doubtful, as if the two of them could have been mistaken. “But I don’t feel anything different.”

“You’ll have to figure it out slowly,” Luo Yuan explained patiently. “Try to focus all your attention. Your ability should be manipulation, something like telekinesis in movies!”

“Telekinesis? That’s awesome! It’s my favorite one,” Wang Shishi spoke excitedly. She hurriedly stared at the piece of a ceramic plate and mumbled inaudibly, yet the piece remained unmoving. Ten seconds passed.

“Don’t get too excited and don’t mumble to yourself. Focus your energy. Use your willpower to move what you want moved. Give it another try,” Luo Yuan said as he spotted the problem.

“Mm,” Wang Shishi answered with a flushed face. She took a few deep breaths with her eyes closed before opening them again to stare at the piece of ceramic. This time, it floated shakily.

However, it dropped instantly when Wang Shishi grinned happily and lost her focus.

She did not seem to mind though, and only continued to try with newfound excitement. Chopsticks, teacups, plates, books, even chairs began to float around, although that seemed to be the limit of her ability. Luo Yuan guessed that she could only manipulate objects no heavier than 10 kilograms and he was a little disappointed. However, that was only the beginning. She would probably have plenty of room for improvement.

After a few minutes, her face suddenly paled and with a stagger of her body, a plate dropped and shattered into pieces.

“Are you alright?” Huang Jiahui asked at once.

“Just a small headache,” Wang Shishi said weakly.

Huang Jiahui looked at Luo Yuan. “Will she be alright like this?”

“Shouldn’t be a big deal. She should be fine after she gets some rest,” Luo Yuan replied as he thought about it. He was inwardly guessing that her ability would most likely have to do with the ability to sense things.

Wang Shishi did recover and she felt better after a while, but she dared not try it again.

Although Huang Jiahui did not seem to mind that Wang Shishi and Luo Yuan were both evolved, her jealousy was revealed when it was time to go to bed.

“Both of you have already evolved. Why is it only me who has not?” Huang Jiahui asked disappointedly as she got out of shower.

“You can’t rush it. It’s like a lottery, it’s all based on luck. We can’t change the fact that you’re unlucky,” Luo Yuan said weakly. He was also jealous of the girl, who had evolved after only eating mutated meat twice. It was true that comparison was the thief of joy. Just luck itself was enough to frustrate someone to no end.

“Bullshit me all you want,” Huang Jiahui said as she sat by the bed and pinched Luo Yuan. Then she added, “Do you think it’s related to someone’s physique? Some people will never evolve.”

She looked really anxious now. She had not cared much about evolving before because nobody else had either, but now that both Luo Yuan and Wang Shishi had evolved, she suddenly felt the pressure built inside her.

Luo Yuan was not sure what the answer to her question was. All he could do was comfort her, “I already told you, it’s all about chance, and chances in this case are slim. It’s all a matter of luck. Eat more next time, and you’ll evolve soon enough.”

Huang Jiahui looked visibly deflated at the idea of having to eat more of that disgusting meat.

“Oh right, you sleep first. I won’t be sleeping tonight,” Luo Yuan suddenly said as he thought of something.

“What is it?” Huang Jiahui asked, standing up.

“Inspiration. I’m gonna meditate tonight,” was his reply.

“You’re not obsessed, right? What’s the use of meditation? Are you gonna meditate your way to immortality?” Huang Jiahui scoffed.

“Maybe,” Luo Yuan murmured to himself. An image of the dragon snake flashed across his mind.

After the battle in the morning, he seemed to have had some sort of realization. Combining this with his memories, he had a premonition that that day would be breakthrough day. In order to prevent anything bizarre happening and avoid disturbing the girls’ sleep, he got out of the house and headed to the residential area.

It was not even 8 p.m., yet the residential area was deserted. Nobody would dare come out at night after the commotion with the mutated earthworm in the morning. He didn’t need to worry about being disturbed.

Plus, it would be unfortunate for the light blue rank earthworm to make an appearance since Luo Yuan could easily finish it off.

He chose a secluded spot and stopped there.

The place used to be a park, but now there were only stumps where the trees used to be before they had been chopped off that very morning. Luo Yuan picked a stump about half a meter in diameter and sat down on it cross-legged.

Within a few breaths’ time, he had already calmed down, his mind cleared of all sorts of thoughts.

About ten minutes later, his eyes suddenly opened A weak ray of light flashed through the night as his eyes turned murderous, an intimidating aura spreading from him. He stared straight ahead unblinkingly as if a great enemy was standing there.

The night sounds of crickets and creatures all seemed to vanish as pin-drop silence surrounded him.

He was thoroughly focused, nothing but the enemy in front of him occupying his mind.

The grave aura around him grew stronger, the veins protruding on his machete-holding arm, an invisible energy slowly growing within him. As the energy reached its peak, a crisp slicing sound accompanied by a faint blue light sliced through the night air.

His eyes widened.

“This is the feeling!”

Focusing his willpower had been the charm. In other words, it had increased his concentration and allowed him to become immersed in that particular matter.

It was usual for all sorts of thoughts or environmental factors to interrupt when a common person attempted to focus their concentration,. What might have looked like complete concentration would usually be miles away from a clear mind. However, this was not something a person could have control over.

That was also true for Luo Yuan.

The only exception was when there was a life-threatening danger. Then all thoughts would automatically merge into one to fight the enemy. When a person’s mind was focused, the strength of their willpower would shine through– an illusion turning into reality.

Although Luo Yuan could not exactly face a grave enemy, he could self-hypnotize and picture an enemy as he tried to focus all his thoughts.

Once he had mastered this, the rest would be just history.

About ten minutes later, he opened his eyes once again and slashed his machete through the air. A ray of light flashed, lingering before disappearing again. The light was faint and looked like the shiny reflection of an extremely thin layer of frost while the blade of the machete looked like it had been coated with a layer of mist not unlike green smoke. It looked beautifully mythical.

With each try, focusing his willpower became easier. The light lingered longer as well. The longest was only half a second, yet it was enough to thrill Luo Yuan. Half a second was considered long during a battle as his speed would allow him to make at least 5 or 6 slashes to end the fight.

The light essence was spectacularly sharp, too. It looked like it could slice through anything, but it could only be sustained by his willpower.

To experiment, he grabbed a branch and tried to chop through a lump of basalt in the park. As the branch hit the lump of basalt, fear rose in him and his concentration broke into pieces.

It took him more than an hour to beat this inexplicable fear, but eventually his consciousness returned to normal.

This made Luo Yuan realize that he could not perform this routine often. It would be extremely restraining as his willpower would alter his reality. Considering his 13-point Willpower, he was still not at a stage where he could use it freely.