When the two disciples finally remembered why exactly they were making out, Shen Lei pulled back slightly and raised his hand. Unfortunately, the gash was still there.
Luo Lin pursed his lips and pulled him back, giving it another try. Honestly, while he liked the new look that white jade’s ability had given him, he’d much rather be able to heal Shen Lei. At the very least, if he got injured, he would be able to do something for him.
Their second try didn’t change anything though, save for the fact that Shen Lei managed to smear the blood on Luo Lin’s white robe. He furrowed his brows and finally had to shake his head. Turning back to Tong Chen, he finally pulled further away from his fiance. “It doesn’t seem like he still has the ability.”
Tong Chen gave a hum, silently thinking of the implications. They had already expected that something like this might be the case but to now see that they had been right naturally gave them more to come up with a theory. As for what that could be … “There is a chance that you lose the previous … copy of the ability when you acquire a new one. It could also be that you retain it but can’t use both at the same time and can’t simply switch randomly.”
Blue butterfly nodded. “I think the latter would make more sense. After all, this ability of his allows him to copy something after coming into contact with it and it takes a while to activate. But after that, shouldn’t the ability be ‘learned’? In that case, he should be able to use it again even without getting into contact with it once more.”
Tong Chen nodded. “Yes, that would be my idea as well. The question is how exactly the switch would work.”
At that, Luo Lin couldn’t help but pipe up himself. “It took me a whole night to actually develop the two abilities. Maybe there is a time limit of the same length in how I would be able to use the abilities.”
Tong Chen gave another hum. “That might be right but the question is: How would you switch?”
Luo Lin shook his head. “I don’t know but it might just depend on what I want to do. I mean, it takes one night to acquire an ability. The first time, I only had that one and didn’t know much so I used it inadvertently on Shen Lei the next morning. This time, it took a night to learn once again but I was waiting for it and had a specific goal in mind so that was the ability I used this time. If we waited another night without me trying to gain another ability, maybe I could choose which ability to activate.”
“That would make sense, although I wonder why it would be exactly one day. That seems strange.”
At that, Luo Lin could only shrug his shoulders. “I don’t know either. It could also be that I am wrong with that. Anyway, the first time was an accident. I didn’t even know I had an ability and it simply happened on its own. You weren’t there at the time but I was in so much pain, I thought I would die.
“This time though, there wasn’t as much. I was only a bit uncomfortable for about half an hour. Maybe I am getting used to this and slowly figuring it out subconsciously. In that case, in the future, it might work faster than a night.”
At that, blue butterfly couldn’t help but turn to Tong Chen. “He isn’t wrong. Also, if your theory with the abilities stemming from another dimension is right, then he might simply have an easier time copying new abilities when he is asleep. Dreams are close to that dimension, that is why my dreamscape works so well. So he might be touching on it which allows him to copy the ability, something that he can’t consciously do yet because it is indeed all new.”
Tong Chen clicked his tongue. “If that is indeed the case, then we should work on that. Right now, there are only these four abilities of ours to copy from but if he was really able to learn parts of all four of them and maybe use them at will, then that would put him and maybe even our side at a big advantage in this war.”
Blue butterfly gave a hum but her expression was a little odd. “I guess that does depend on what he copies. So far, the one he got from white jade seems to be completely useless. Plus, if he can’t switch at random and only once a day after all, then the benefit won’t be that big either.”
Shen Lei looked from one to the other and couldn’t help but clear his throat. “Yesterday, you also mentioned that there might be a limit to how many ability … fragments, Luo Lin could pick up. If he learns too much now, wouldn’t that put him at a disadvantage in the future?”
Tong Chen nodded. “That is a very real worry to have. Unfortunately, the limitations of his ability will only become apparent when he continues to use it and experiment with it. That is how they all are.” He furrowed his brows and then turned to Zhi Guan. “Alright, can you go and wake up your little junior?
“Since it seems that he also has an ability, we should get the two of them together to talk about this. Learning with each other should benefit them more. It sure did for the four of us back then.”
Yes, even though he had had quite a bit about his ability figured out when he made his way over to the Jian Chu Sect back then, he had learned even more about his ability while traveling with the others. If possible, he would have liked to give Yun Bei Fen and Luo Lin the same opportunity but in their case, there just was no time. They needed to learn as fast as possible so that they would stand a chance to keep their lives in this war and maybe even help their side achieve victory like the four of them had done back then.
