Epiphany

After returning to the institute, Lin Feng's life strangely returned to how it used to be. Because Dilia had not yet returned from the Yulan Empire, Lin Feng stopped attending wind-style magic classes and spent all his time alone at the back mountain.

Lin Feng knew that if he wanted to reclaim his family's heirloom blade, Warblade, through official channels, the funds he currently had were far from enough. The magic cores and gold coins in his Space Ring combined to a total value of only about a million gold coins at most. Therefore, if he wanted to reclaim Warblade, he had to earn money. Although he could borrow money from his eldest brother Yale, and Yale would certainly lend it to him, Lin Feng was unwilling to do so. He wanted to use his own strength to get his family's heirloom blade, Warblade, back.

What profession was the most profitable? The answer, of course, was stone carving. The works of an average master stone carver could often sell for thousands of gold coins, while the works of grandmaster-level experts often fetched tens of thousands of gold coins or more. As for grandmaster-level stone carvings, they were worth at least a million gold coins.

Therefore, ever since Lin Feng returned from his hometown last time, he had been carving stones in his spare time, then letting Yale take his works to the Proulx Gallery to be listed for sale.

Because Lin Feng's stone carving skills were already exceptional, combined with the unique nature of the Flat Blade School, his works quickly attracted the attention of some stone carving enthusiasts, and the prices they sold for climbed steadily. Eventually, this also caught the attention of the Proulx Gallery. Austoni, the curator of the Proulx Gallery, personally wrote a letter inviting Lin Feng, wishing to open an independent exhibition hall for him in the gallery's expert exhibition area.

For such a benefit, Lin Feng naturally nodded and agreed.

A 15-year-old master-level stone carver would be sought after by others no matter where he went. When people learned that besides being a master-level carver, Lin Feng was also a sixth-year student at the Ernst Institute, Lin Feng instantly became a celebrity in the Fenlai Kingdom, and even gained some fame throughout the entire Yulan Empire.

Although Lin Feng had become a household name, these empty titles did not affect his life or cultivation. Aside from regularly carving a batch of stone sculptures to be sold at the Proulx Gallery, he spent all his other time cultivating his spiritual energy and refining magic power, hoping to break through his current realm as soon as possible and step into the level of a ninth-rank mage.

However, the further one progressed in magic cultivation, the harder it was to break through. Although Lin Feng was already at the peak of the eighth rank, breaking through to the ninth rank was not such a simple matter.

The Yulan Festival had passed for more than two months, and on this day, Lin Feng was still cultivating in the back mountain as usual.

But for some reason, Lin Feng found that he could never calm his heart down to cultivate. He had wanted to calm his mind through carving, but the frequent mistakes he made while carving only made him increasingly irritable.

"Sigh, it's been over half a year since Dilia left, hasn't it? Why hasn't she returned yet?" Lin Feng sat by the waterfall and muttered to himself.

The moment he thought of Dilia, Lin Feng's heart, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly grew hot.

Gazing at the surging torrent of water before him, moving images flashed through Lin Feng's mind like fleeting shadows.

That bundle of golden long hair, as beautiful as an elf under the moonlight.

The warmth of whispering to each other in the wind-style magic classroom.

The strength shown while fighting against various magical beasts in the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

The beauty of her lying in his arms and embracing him by the waterfall.

With Dilia's voice and appearance flashing through his mind, Lin Feng smiled, a silly, foolish smile.

Sensing Lin Feng's current state of mind, Doehring Cowart, still dressed in his moon-white robe, flew out from the Coiling Dragon ring. Standing quietly by Lin Feng's side, Doehring Cowart did not make a sound, only watching Lin Feng with a gratified and slightly moved expression.

The sky darkened, then brightened again. A day passed quietly, but Lin Feng remained trapped in his memories, not moving a single inch.

Ernst Institute, Dormitory 1987.

"Eh?" When Yale woke up in the morning and saw that Lin Feng's bedding was exactly the same as yesterday, completely undisturbed, he was immediately surprised and asked George, "Second brother, did third brother come back last night?"

"Third brother?" George, who was still groggy from sleep, asked subconsciously upon hearing Yale's words, then said, "I don't know. I didn't see him, anyway. Perhaps he came back last night and went to the back mountain to cultivate early this morning."

"That's true, third brother is a cultivation fanatic; otherwise, he wouldn't have reached the eighth rank of magic at such a young age," Reynolds, who was currently getting dressed, added.

"No, look, third brother's quilt is still folded the way it was yesterday; it wasn't touched at all last night." Although Yale seemed carefree, he was actually quite observant.

"Hmm?" Reynolds turned his head to look at Lin Feng's bed and said hesitantly, "Could it be that third brother didn't come back last night? But other than the times he went home or went to the Magical Beast Mountain Range for training, third brother has never spent the night outside before!"

Hearing this, Yale couldn't help but frown. He knew Lin Feng very well; Lin Feng lived a very disciplined life, and unless an emergency occurred, he would never stay out overnight.

"You two, get up quickly. Let's go to the back mountain together and take a look." Although Yale knew that with Lin Feng's strength, nothing would happen to him, he still felt uneasy in his heart.

The three of them dressed neatly and, without even having time to wash up, hurried toward the back mountain.

"Eldest brother, third brother usually likes to cultivate by that waterfall. Let's go there and look for him."

When the three of them ran to the waterfall, they saw at a glance that Lin Feng was sitting in front of a huge rock, smiling foolishly.

"Looking at third brother's appearance, he wouldn't have sat there foolishly all night, would he?" Seeing Lin Feng's state, Reynolds spoke first.

"Perhaps. But looking at third brother now, he doesn't look like he's cultivating either. Could it be that he didn't come back last night and froze himself silly outside?" Seeing that nothing had happened to Lin Feng, George let go of his worry and joked.

The experienced Yale did not speak, only looking at Lin Feng with some confusion.

"Don't worry, second brother. Even if you went silly, third brother wouldn't. He is the genius of our Dormitory 1987, after all," Reynolds said, teasing George.

"Then why has third brother been sitting there smiling so foolishly?"

"Why don't we go wake him up and ask?" Reynolds said, then walked toward Lin Feng.

"Wait!" Seeing Reynolds' movement, Yale immediately called out, "Fourth brother, don't disturb third brother. Third brother might have entered a certain state."

Hearing this, Reynolds couldn't help but stop in his tracks, turn his head, and ask in surprise, "A certain state? Could it be the epiphany that all mages dream of?"

"Perhaps. Regardless, we must not disturb third brother under any circumstances." Yale assumed the air of the eldest brother, "We will stand guard here for third brother and wait for him to wake up."

George and Reynolds nodded upon hearing this.

The waiting time was dull, but the three of them had no complaints. After all, an epiphany was a good thing that every mage dreamed of but could rarely find—a massive stroke of luck. If someone interrupted it, at best, he would be pulled out of the state of epiphany; at worst, it would disturb his mind and cause severe damage to his spiritual energy.

Half a day later, Yale and the others were all hungry, but because they had to guard Lin Feng and could not leave, they had to send Reynolds to the institute to get some food and water to settle things on the spot.

"How long do you think third brother will be in this epiphany? It's already been four days. Adding the previous day, that's five days in total. We haven't seen third brother move an inch; he just sits there smiling foolishly. I wonder what happy thing he could be thinking of," George said helplessly, looking at Lin Feng, who still maintained that foolish smile.

"This is a good thing. The longer the epiphany lasts, the greater the benefits third brother will receive," Yale said unhurriedly, taking a bite of bread.