Chapter 23: Showing Off

As Eric and Darren made their way towards the rest of the group, Darren declared something before anyone else could speak up.

"Before we get to the lunch, Eric here has made a rather interesting bet with me." Darren paused for a second and then continued.

"As we all know, this celebratory lunch is being held for Liam and Lily's talent being unveiled. Since we are putting up a party like this and calling our closest friends here, it would make sense that they have pretty high aptitudes, right?"

Hearing this, the twins smiled; they were in a very giddy mood as they were the focus of this event. Unbeknownst to them, however, Eric would soon steal their thunder.

Darren continued speaking to the other five, "Eric, however, doesn't agree with that and has made a bet with me that his aptitude would be either higher than or equal to my children… in all three paths."

Hearing this, the expressions of all the listeners changed quite a bit. Patricia was surprised and Jane tried to maintain a composed look on her face. Blake almost let out a laugh and slyly smiled at Eric. His parents knew how incredibly rare his aptitude and talent was; and they smiled as they thought he was doing this to show off in front of his friends a bit.

Liam and Lily, however, were totally shocked and didn't believe what their dad told them.

"How can he have better aptitudes than us, in all three paths to be specific? Eric, you will look stupid if you bluff like this." Liam interrupted.

"Well, let's test our aptitudes then. Let's see whose aptitude is higher: mine, or the two of yours." Eric replied calmly.

He looked very calm and composed externally, but he was still not completely sure of his plan in his mind.

'It's not like I have the highest class aptitude in all three paths. It's only my aptitude in the path of the soul which can't be beaten by anyone; in the other two it's not the same. For this part, the only thing I can do is play it cool and leave the rest of it to my luck. I can't do anything to change their aptitudes.' Eric thought to himself as the others tried to understand why Eric had made this proposal.

'I should do this quickly before this gets called off; I don't want to lose lots of potential experience points.

Since the reward was one item from the ground floor, that would include everything stored in the ground floor's treasury. There is bound to be something good there; and since the value of the item scammed is one of the major factors in determining the amount of experience points gained, I can potentially level up quite a bit from this.'

Eric snapped back to reality and tried to speed up the process.

"Well, we will get to see the results once we show our aptitudes here. If you think I'm bluffing, you can ask my parents. I have pretty high aptitudes as well." Eric explained while Blake and Jane just smiled awkwardly.

They knew Eric's aptitude was amazing, but they didn't know Liam and Lily's aptitudes yet; and therefore they couldn't say anything in this matter.

Seeing that his parents wouldn't ruin his plan, Eric smiled and asked Darren for the crystals. Darren was pretty interested in this whole situation and gladly gave Eric the crystals.

Eric, however, gave them to Liam and Lily first.

"You guys should show us your aptitudes first. After all, this celebration is for the two of you."

Lily was still a little bit confused but Liam decided to step up and be the first to display his aptitude.

He was pretty sure he wouldn't lose to Eric. Liam and Eric had a friendly rivalry and they wouldn't want to lose to the other in anything, their aptitudes included.

Liam took the yellow crystal and inserted his qi into it. The crystal changed colors four times and stopped at a light shade of gold.

Liam's face had a satisfied expression, but as he took the next red crystal from Lily, his face had an even wider smile on it.

"This is what you call a genius!" Liam said proudly as the red crystal in his hands changed its color five whole times and was glowing crimson.

'Thankfully, I said equal to or higher than in my bet.' Eric let out a sigh of relief, 'Being too cocky would only lead me down the path of failure and demise.'

Liam was done showcasing his aptitudes after he got a measly blue glowing crystal for the path of the mind.

Blake and Jane were pleasantly surprised and congratulated Liam, but they had a proud look on their faces, knowing that their son had won this round.

Next up was Lily.

As she put her qi into the yellow crystal of the path of the soul, it glowed four times; she had the same talent as her brother for the path of the soul.

Next up was the body, where the crystal only glowed twice and stopped at the red color.

Finally, it was time for the blue crystal of the mind. Lily injected her qi into the crystal, which shined four times yet again; she had a light azure colored aptitude in the path of the mind.

Seeing this, Eric understood why Liam thought Eric was bluffing.

He had a high class aptitude for the soul and the body, while Lily was talented in the soul and the mind. With this, the two of them combined had high class aptitudes for all three paths of cultivation: a trait which was almost impossible for one person to individually possess.

Eric also saw an update in Liam and Lily's profiles.

[Name: Liam Miller

Age: 11

Date of Birth: November 8

Cultivation Level

Soul: Spirit Apprentice Realm 1st Layer

Body: Not a cultivator

Mind: Not a cultivator

Aptitude

Soul: Light Gold

Body: Crimson

Mind: Blue]

[Name: Lily Miller

Age: 11

Date of Birth: November 8

Cultivation Level

Soul: Spirit Apprentice Realm 1st Layer

Body: Not a cultivator

Mind: Not a cultivator

Aptitude

Soul: Light Gold

Body: Red

Mind: Light Azure]

Once again, Eric's parents congratulated Lily, but they had a relieved look on their faces.

Eric had won the battle of aptitudes!

Once the twins were done with showing their aptitudes, it was Eric's turn.

"You better show us something impressive, Eric!" Liam said, as he was under the false assumption that he and Lily were unbeatable.

Lily didn't verbally express her opinion, but she looked at Eric with a concerned look, as if she wanted to know why he was doing this.

At this same moment, Darren sensed a fluctuation of energy, the source of which was Blake.

Blake had created a barrier made out of his presence that enveloped the group of seven and had hidden them from the servants and other people in the house.

Darren, noticing this, suddenly realized something. The calm and collection expression on his face was at the verge of collapsing.

Blake, who had noticed this, just smiled at Darren.

They both knew what was going to happen.

Eric firmly grasped the translucent yellow crystal in his hand and injected his qi inside it.

The sight that unfolded afterwards was as spectacular as when Eric had first witnessed it; he just didn't have a reaction as he had witnessed it previously.

The same applied to his parents, who were simply proud of their child, once again.

Darren, who already knew what was coming, also didn't have a reaction and just laughed a bit as he brushed some sweat off his brows.

'The son is even more of a monster than his dad, huh?' he thought as he looked at Blake, who looked back at him with a sly yet harmless smile on his face.

Patricia and the twins were flabbergasted and couldn't believe what they saw. A Radiant Gold aptitude was something that hadn't been seen in more than a millennium, so it made sense for them to not believe their eyes.

Seeing the expressions of the onlookers, Eric decided to not give them even a moment to catch their breaths.

'Showing off feels good; I should do it more often.' He thought as he inserted his qi into the rest of the two crystals one after another.

At the end of this little performance he put on, Blake removed the barrier and Darren and his family were left utterly and completely speechless.

Someone they knew had a highest grade aptitude in one path of cultivation and in the other two he also had high grade aptitudes. Such an existence would become incredibly strong, beyond what anyone would expect, in the future.

Liam and Lily were a bit disappointed that they had lost, but they were proud to have a peerless talent such as Eric as their best friend.

For Liam, who considered Eric his best friend and rival, this incident was something he took as inspiration; and he decided to work even harder to make up for the difference in aptitude he had with Eric.

After overcoming the initial shock, the situation calmed down pretty quickly and the whole lunch and the afternoon after that was pretty normal and calm. During this time, Eric had quite a bit of fun, but he was still waiting for after the lunch finished.

What he was looking forward to the most was getting to choose any one item he wanted from the ground floor of the Treasure Pagoda.

A little while after the lunch was over, while Eric was sitting idly, lost in his thoughts, Darren approached him.

Sensing Darren, Eric snapped himself back out of his thoughts and diverted his attention towards Darren, who calmly approached him.

"Shall we go now?" Darren simply asked Eric with a smile on his face; he had sensed his impatience to get his reward even though Eric was trying to hide it.

It took him a second to realize what Darren was referring to, but once Eric understood, his face lit up into a giant smile and he vigorously nodded.

'Finally, it's time!' Eric thought, as he got up and started following Darren.