71 Experimentation Part 2

Shi Die and Yan Guo were sitting on top of a big rock that was in the training grounds. They were lounging around because they were taking a break from their experimenting session. They noticed that out of everyone on their team, they were the closest to achieving a complete combination attack. It was because their combination attack didn't need any complicated moves but relied on several individual attacks before merging into a single attack which they would use to strike together.

Shi Die was telling Yan Guo about the benefits that he would receive from training with the others because of the stone that they had. Yan Guo was interested in the stone that Ye Xiu had and was curious about how it worked. The group had agreed that they would only tell Yan Guo about the stone and if they felt he was trustworthy enough, he'd be allowed to know about the Dimension.

Though Ye Xiu knew that if Yan Guo found about the Dimension before they told him then it'd be disastrous so they had to tell him about the stone so that he wouldn't have any suspicions. They had decided that they would decrease the time needed to charge the stone by charging it in the Dimension since time moved faster and he was able to regain his Qi at a faster pace in the higher Qi density environment.

As Shi Die told him about the stone, he was observing the facial expressions and body movements that he would make to see whether he could be trusted since Shi Die was the best at reading people's emotions and mood especially with his heightened senses helping him smell the changes in emotions of a person. Yan Guo's expression didn't even waver from his surprised and shocked face. Shi Die could sense no greed from him and he was relieved that he could be trusted for now.

They continued to speak about the situation that they would have to set up in order for them to use their combination attack and how they would go about practising the technique since they had no visual representation on how powerful a technique could be. A visual representation was hard since they could only count on physical destruction of objects to see the damage done. As they continued to speak, Yan Guo was in deep thought.

Shi Die was surprised to see Yan Guo suddenly stand up from his sitting position on the rock and walked towards the door where Ye Xiu was. He watched Yan Guo walk up and speak to Ye Xiu and he could see the stunned expression on Ye Xiu's face. Ye Xiu's stunned expression didn't last for long as he quickly tried to ask what was going on.

"I, Yan Guo, swear on the heavens that I won't betray the secrets of my friend, Ye Xiu, I also shall not harm him with any dubious intentions, lest the heavens smite me with lightning to destroy my soul." Yan Guo spoke in a solemn tone and it could be clearly seen that Yan Guo was extremely exhausted after he made the oath. Every ounce of his Qi pool was used to enforce the oath and he would need to rest for his Qi to recover.

Ye Xiu stood there dumbstruck, waving his hands in shock. "Uh... why'd you suddenly swear an oath?!? Don't you know how serious that oath is?!? If you ever let anything that I don't want others to know by accident, your soul will be destroyed in an instant!" Ye Xiu was upset because he hadn't wanted such an oath to be sworn to him for no reason at all.

Everybody in the training grounds could start to hear Ye Xiu's shouting, they moved closer towards them to see what was happening and they couldn't believe their ears. "There was no need for you to swear an oath in the first place! I know Shi Die was supposed to tell you about the stone but there's no need to swear an oath because it's not that important!" Ye Xiu tried to pass of the stone as something not of importance to find out the actual reasoning for Yan Guo's actions.

Shang Yang, Shi Die and Xiao Tu were standing there with amused expressions because Ye Xiu's reactions were understandable but they liked to see their friend distressed at times because Ye Xiu was the calmest out of everybody in the group. They were listening closely and even they were shocked by what Yan Guo did.

They personally didn't swear such a solemn oath to Ye Xiu because they all knew that nobody would ever break the oaths they made. They had only made the oath after knowing each other for a long period of time but Yan Guo barely even knew them after a few meetings and training sessions.

Yan Guo didn't look repentant even after what he had just done and was even smiling at the shocked faces. He shook his head as he spoke. "I know exactly what I've done. You are my only friends and I don't want to lose your trust. You might think such a stone of yours is inconsequential but it's worth more than what multiple countries could possibly put together. If others knew about it, I believe wars would break out just to get it."

Ye Xiu looked at Shi Die. "I forgot to mention that only you could use it?" Shi Die had a sheepish smile on his face as he hesitantly spoke up.

Ye Xiu sighed. "Only I can use the stone so you shouldn't worry about it. Since you've sworn an oath to me, you might as swear oaths to the others since we'll be doing the same for you later." Ye Xiu's tone was grave and he wore an expression that dared him to decline his suggestion.

"B-b-b-but!" Yan Guo started to protest but stopped instantly once Ye Xiu raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine... I guess I'm not getting away with it then." He pouted but complied with what Ye Xiu had asked him to do.

"Hold on. Repeat these words instead of the oath you just used since it's too severe. There's no need for you to have such a severe oath anyway. We'll also swear a similar oath to the one you just did so we will be fair." Yan Guo himself was about to protest but once again his protests died in his throat with the glares that everyone seemed to be shooting him.

The affair was quickly resolved as they all swore oaths to each other. Unknowingly, the group that was supposed to stay as a four was altered into a team of five. The paths of destiny were changed but those paths could still be changed depending on their actions.

Ye Xiu beckoned for everyone to enter the house and asked them all to hold his hands. Those that knew about his Dimension did it without complaint and though Yan Guo was confused with the order he complied with Ye Xiu's wishes. They were pulled into the Dimension quickly. "The stone still has to be used either way since it increases the time we have so we can use the benefits from the Dimension." Xiao Tu quickly spoke, just in case the group changed their mind about using the stone.

"Don't worry Xiao Tu. Now I'll have to explain what is going on to Yan Guo since he has no clue to what is going on and he's sworn an oath to all of us. I'm surprised that you actually did such a thing but what's done is done. At least we don't have to keep secrets from you anymore." Shang Yang and Shi Die chuckled since they knew that Ye Xiu was very conflicted about keeping secrets from his best friends.

Yan Guo was looking around the Dimension like a confused puppy and his expression was extremely cute to Shang Yang. She walked up, pinched and stretched his cheeks. She let go of his cheeks after twenty seconds and his cheeks were reasonably red.

"Anyway, this is the Dimension. It's a pocket dimension that I own and everybody that knows about it has to swear an oath to use the benefits of the Dimension. Since you unknowingly swore an oath to me, you can now reap the benefits. I originally wanted to tell you about the Dimension but uh... we didn't trust you enough and we weren't sure whether you would knowingly swear an oath to me if I told you about the Dimension."

Yan Guo just nodded with a stunned expression on his face as he looked around the Dimension. "I understand, if I had such a big secret as well, I'd be cautious too. Your stone itself, even if others can't use it, would still cause fights to break out just to retrieve it if they knew what it could do. They'd probably just capture you and force you to charge it for them for as long as you can. A dimension such as this? I shudder when I think about the consequences if a secret like this got out."

Ye Xiu was happy that his friend didn't hold anything against him for holding back a secret such as this from him and was even happier that he understood the reasoning behind their secrecy.

They quickly explained the benefits and how the dimension functioned so that he would be able to use it with confidence. Ye Xiu was sad because compared to the others that could use the dimension more often than Yan Guo, he could only use it when he actually came over their training session because Yan Shen had Yan Guo tied down to his schedule and he wasn't allowed to miss anything in that schedule.

Yan Guo had told them that it would be possible for him to sneak away from his house every day since their houses were relatively close together and it wouldn't take long for him to get to where they are. They agreed to his plan and hoped that he wasn't caught by his father.

Yan Guo looked at his friends with tears in his eyes as he realised that he finally had true friends and he hoped that his father wouldn't chase them away like he did to the numerous other people he tried to be friends with.

They showed Yan Guo around the dimension and Xiao Bai was quickly introduced to him. Xiao Bai simply looked at Yan Guo before flying off with a smirk on his face, silently snickering. Yan Guo was allowed into the barriers that surrounded the house and they helped him familiarize with the entire dimension. He was awestruck with how much the dimension contained and when he saw the library he whistled.

Xiao Bai came back to where the group was and led them towards the training grounds of the dimension. Yan Guo was promptly asked by Xiao Bai to display his skills and techniques for him to see.

"Display everything you know. Fight against Ye Xiu! I want to see what you can do." Yan Guo and Ye Xiu jumped into action and Xiao Bai observed what Yan Guo could do. He nodded a few more times before taking out an elixir and handed it over to him. "Drink this."

Yan Guo drank the potion as he was ordered and Xiao Bai simply looked at something invisible to everyone before leaving. "Thank you. You may go do whatever you have to do now."

They used up the time that they had in the Dimension before sending Yan Guo back off to his home. Yan Shen watched his son walk into the house and he could see that Yan Guo's mood was definitely good. He decided to destroy the good mood that he had since he had a bad day due to a meeting between several important people from the Academies.

Yan Guo's smile wasn't even wiped off his face as he faced the rigorous training that his father had him do.