The greater the power, the more desires.

  That night, Amun came to the Cold Spring again, but not for a bath as usual. In the past, he would sit at the edge of the Cold Spring, soaking his body and washing his face and hair clean, but this time the old madman asked him to dive into the depths of the Cold Spring, find the spring eye, where there was something special, take it out and bring it back.

  As for what it was, the old madman didn't say.

  The cold spring water is icy and piercing, the surface of the water under the moonlight has a layer of fog condensed on it, looking as if it's emitting hot air, but in fact it's tiny water droplets formed by the low-temperature air close to the water surface. In this biting cold water, ordinary people would shiver uncontrollably and be unable to bear it after just a few breaths, even Ah Mon needs courage to dive deep into it.

  Amon took a deep breath and slipped silently into the spring water, trying not to think about the biting cold, focusing his mind on using his body to feel the weak current at the bottom of the water, searching for the source of the spring. The center of the cold spring wasn't too deep, roughly equivalent to the height of two adults, which was enough to make Amon's head spin.

  In the depths of the spring water, a chill crept in as if it were endless, and the heat inside his body was rapidly dissipating. Armon tried his best to control himself not to shiver, but every pore was shrinking with fear, and every small fiber of muscle was trembling slightly and weakly.

  It was difficult to concentrate in this situation, but Armon did it. He felt that the seemingly calm spring water had a slow flow deep down, and followed the flow to its source. The source of the cold spring was gushing out from a gap between a pile of egg-shaped stones at the bottom, and Armon suddenly felt an even deeper chill in the midst of a piercing coldness.

  This subtle difference was hard to discern, as the surroundings were already icy cold. Amun's hand touched a stone that resembled a mineral core, and when he concentrated his mind to feel it carefully, his body suddenly shook uncontrollably with a chill, almost inhaling water. The original indifference to the cold seemed to be suddenly awakened, crazily piercing into his body.

  It wasn't the spring water that had become colder, but rather Amun seemed to have tapped into the source of this chill, awakening and amplifying the feeling, making him almost unbearable for an instant, wanting to leave quickly, even doubting he would be frozen stiff in the spring.

  But Ah Mon didn't leave, a surge of heat rose up inside his body, spreading throughout his limbs. This reaction usually only occurred when he sat down to rest after leaving the cold spring, but now it was happening in the water, indicating that he had been there for long enough, almost exceeding some kind of limit, and his body had undergone an instinctive self-protection, also awakening a certain power.

  Amon grasped the egg-sized ore core, but to his surprise, he couldn't lift it. The seemingly ordinary stone that had fallen to the bottom of the water appeared to be fixed in place by a mysterious force, as if stuck.

  Amon held his breath and concentrated all his spirit, in an instant the cold air and heat flow in his body seemed to be under his control, his whole body was trembling rapidly, his chest was stuffy and uncomfortable, his right hand emitted a surprising force. Feeling suddenly relaxed, the boulder was picked up by him, Amon's body jumped out of the water surface, and then splashed down again, still tightly holding the stone in his hand.

  He crawled back to the shore, but didn't notice that piece of egg stone. Instead, he closed his eyes and sat there, seemingly motionless, yet feeling all the blood in his body rushing rapidly, every pore trembling in a way that was imperceptible to the naked eye. The water droplets on his skin evaporated into hot air, but the chill inside him took a long time to dissipate slowly.

  He only spent a short time underwater, but he felt very tired and got up to move his limbs around, with movements that seemed like strange gymnastics. After calming down, he began to carefully examine the egg-shaped stone. It looked very much like an ore core, but Armon had seen many different types of ore cores before, and always felt that there was something different about this one. Although it looked almost identical to a natural egg-shaped stone, he could sense some artificial traces, even though they were extremely well-made.

  Just now when I sensed it in the spring water, it was so cold, but now holding it in my hand, there is only a normal coolness of a stone, and almost no abnormality can be detected. Thinking of this, Amun suddenly realized that something was wrong again, put down the stone and re-entered the cold spring. The water of the cold spring was still icy, but as Amun had guessed, the piercing chill was gradually dissipating.

  By now, Armon should have completed the task entrusted to him by the old madman, but he hasn't stopped yet. He dove into the cold spring again. This time it was much simpler than last time. Soon he threw another egg stone onto the shore with one hand and then took a breath and dived down again, throwing out twenty more egg stones before climbing back to the shore.

  This time he was frozen enough, his body was slightly purple, and he was panting heavily, shaking like a sieve. At this moment, he inexplicably felt that the moonlight seemed to have brightened, with a warm feeling enveloping him, slowly seeping into his body. He looked up to see a divine stone quietly floating above, emitting soft light, and when he turned his head again, the old madman was already standing behind him.

  "Child, you'll hurt yourself like this. I didn't ask you to take out the entire magic array, just find the middle one, the Azure Water Heart, and use your power to take it out." As the old madman spoke, the suspended divine stone became brighter, its soft white light transforming into a dense fog that gradually restored Armon's body, while also giving him an oppressive feeling that made him speechless.

  "But you are more outstanding than I imagined, let you take out the Azure Water Heart. The main test is two points of ability: First, your body can withstand the invasion of this cold spring and still use power without interference; Second, your spirit and will are strong enough to perceive subtle changes in that environment. Only then, it is possible to awaken the power of both sides."

  The old madman spoke, waving the short staff in his hand, and the twenty eggstones on the ground shattered silently, like a scene of mining with a large hammer, revealing the twenty divine stones inside. The eggstone that Amun had taken out first showed a wavy pattern on its surface, like water ripples, then flowed down into sand, and a dark blue divine stone appeared in the center.

  "Thirty years ago, I used a Azure Water Heart and twenty Divine Stones to set up a magic array here, creating this Cold Spring. Its mission has now been completed. Those egg-shaped stones are not natural mineral cores, but rather disguises I created. I'm not surprised you found the Azure Water Heart, but you actually discovered all the disguised egg-shaped stones, which truly surprises me."

  After finishing this speech, the divine stone in mid-air fell down and was caught by the old madman. In front of him, only the quiet moonlight reflected on the water surface. Ah Meng had already stood up, stretched out his hand to pick up the blue divine stone and asked: "Is it called Yu Lan Shui Xin?"

  The old madman nodded: "Yes, various different colored divine stones all have their own names, the blue ones are called 'Mysterious Blue Water Heart' by the divine technique masters."

  Kids who grew up in Du Ke town, of course, know that apart from the standard colorless transparent divine stone, there are also four special divine stones: red, blue, black and white. However, Amun had never heard of this "幽蓝水心" before. These four special divine stones may not be as rare as the Tears of the Gods, but they are still extremely hard to come by. Even in a place like Du Ke town, only a few of them are produced each year. If you're unlucky, you might not even see one in several years.

  Amon last extracted the Tears of the Gods, but before he could take a closer look, Fayol took it away. Today was his first chance to study special divine stones other than standard ones. Just as he was playing with them, he found that Old Crazy had already turned around and left.

  "Where are you going?" Ah Meng shouted from behind.

  "Of course, I'm going home to sleep! I was afraid you'd get into trouble in the cold spring, so I came over to take a look and be ready to rescue you at any time. Since you're fine, I can have a good sleep now." The old madman replied without even turning his head back.

  "What about these divine stones? Are you not taking them away?" Ah Meng shouted again.

  "I threw them here thirty years ago, and never wanted to take them away. You can have whatever you pick up, it will come in handy someday... Tomorrow night at the same time, in this very place, I'll hold a power awakening ceremony for you, don't forget." As the voice faded away, the old madman had already disappeared into the black fire forest.

  After the old man left, Ah Meng sat by the spring water, admiring the mysterious blue water heart. When he concentrated his mind to carefully feel it, he always felt a kind of mysterious power fluctuating between the divine stone and the spring water. There was also something stirring in his body, as if it was a breath of longing. Unconsciously, his mind wandered again.

  ……

  The second night, the old madman's "Rite of Awakening" for Armon turned out to be a kind of prayer. But unlike the rituals held by the divine magicians, this great magician did not make Armon pray to any specific deity, but only taught him how to make his spirit more focused, and everything outside was between visible and invisible, so as to clearly feel the subtle changes in his body and mind, condensing his spiritual introspection, and communicating with the original power that symbolizes all things.

  Doing so is certainly much more difficult than a priest's sincere prayer to the gods, and the old madman also told Armon that it wouldn't hurt to pray to the gods either. He chuckled and explained in one sentence: "That day you discussed the source of divinity with Aristotle, I heard it too. If you can understand what he said, then you can also understand my meaning... To awaken power, sufficient preparation must be made, otherwise this ritual will not succeed, and you have already prepared enough that cannot be more sufficient."

  This ritual was like opening a door, triggering an unknown world. The old madman let Amun put the pale blue aquamarine in front of him and try to condense his spiritual power with the pale blue aquamarine as a medium, feeling how to communicate with this unknown world. Amun truly felt a coolness, seemingly present but absent, diffusing around without a definite shape.

  When he felt this coolness, it seemed to turn into a piece of ice and cold, which was the most familiar feeling he had in the cold spring for a long time. Then he felt that the spring water around him resonated with a strange rhythm. This rhythm is not breathing or heartbeat, but an unclear natural rhythm.

  At the same time, Old Maniac saw that the Azure Water Heart was emitting a faint water light enveloping Amun's body, and he couldn't help but sigh: "If we were to use the tears of the gods for this ritual, it would be much easier to awaken the power. The Azure Water Heart is also suitable, even if you don't borrow any external objects, you will still succeed, it's just that this way is better, and mastering the specific divine technique will also be easier."

  Amon didn't hear the old man's words, he was immersed in this strange new world. Was this what they called the power of the gods? Or was it the power of nature itself? Maybe it was even a power that had been dormant within his own body all along. What he felt wasn't just the strange fluctuations from outside, but also an indescribable lightness and ease in his body, as if he had never been so strong before.

  He inexplicably felt himself to be very powerful, as if he could control or conquer everything. When his spirit was focused on introspection, he indeed sensed the dual power of unity.

  Desire always accompanies power, and the greater the power, the more desires there are. For example, a hungry person may only think of having a full meal, while an emperor may think of conquering the entire continent, possessing endless wealth and power.

  In the seeming quiet, all sorts of desires or wishes also quietly appear, and it is unclear whether they come from the body or the soul. In a focused prayer ceremony, perhaps still can be suppressed, but in the usual words and deeds, Ahmon soon feels this disturbance.

  ……

  The ceremony was just the beginning, the old man told him that he had to gradually grasp it until he thoroughly controlled this feeling, and only then could he truly learn magic and martial arts. It would probably take some time. In the following days, Amun came to the spring every night to focus on his prayers, but during most of the daytime, he was still a miner in the town, looking no different from before.

  He often thought of Maria, recalling that night's events, the feel of her body and lips, his hand slipping into her neckline to rest on her breast, and his thoughts underwent some subtle changes. He would become lost in a fantasy - having acquired invincible power, he could defeat Gabriel, drive away Roddick's personal guard, leaving only him and Maria, then...

  He indeed possessed unprecedented power, but with the emergence of this power, there were also subtle changes in his mindset. His desires and wishes would swell and expand, flying boundlessly like he had grown wings.

  When he concentrated his mind and body every night, sensing the outside world, he would be very clearly aware of these things, as if enduring a kind of torture. One voice seemed to say, "With power, go get everything you want!" Another voice seemed to say, "How ridiculous, your weakness can only lead to ridicule!" And Amun's own soul seemed to be watching coldly from outside the two voices, yet was unconsciously drawn in.

  When Mary went through all this, Gabriel told her that she only needed to look at it calmly with a pure heart and not be swayed by the surroundings. But the old madman did not say so to Amun, he just told Amun that it was a test, and see how he faced it himself.

  Apart from the haunting of his soul, Armon's body also had an abnormal reaction. He had a delusion that he was getting stronger every day. When walking, his footsteps were so powerful and steady, every bone and muscle was slightly vibrating, as if containing infinite energy. He even had an urge to clench his fists and punch someone.

  The son of a drunkard, who had been ridiculed by the townspeople since childhood, now felt an inexplicable urge to beat up anyone he didn't like. His body was like a ferocious beast waiting to pounce. Amun hadn't fought in town, but he did something that left everyone stunned and envious.

  The consequence of this was that Temple Priest and Secretary Xiao Hu slumped forward in a faint and vomited blood.

  The cause of the matter was those divine stones he had retrieved from the Cold Spring, which Amun had been carefully carrying with him all along. That day, when he passed by the Temple of Mu Yun Goddess, he saw Xiao Gu accompanied by his servants registering the taxes paid by the townspeople at the entrance, and the Town Mayor also stood beside them. With an inexplicable impulse, Amun turned around with a cold smile and walked over, saying loudly: "Town Mayor, I want to pay my taxes!"

  The mayor of Dast Town hasn't replied yet, Xiao Gu asked with some unease and curiosity: "Amon, what tax do you pay? Your family didn't receive any mining cores from the mine in the past few days, did you?"

  Removing the sacred stone from the mine core is only the most critical last step. The place where the mine core was mined is a mine in the north of the village, located on the edge of the Sya Highlands' mountains and valleys. It's impossible for one person to complete the work of opening up the mountain, chiseling stones, and digging out the mine core; it's the collective labor of the town's miners, with someone supervising, and the obtained mine cores are distributed according to each household's effort. In Secretary Xiao Gu's records, there is no record of the Amun family receiving a mine core recently, and he even feels fortunate about that.

  "Respected priest, scribe sir, I happened to find a batch of mineral cores washed down by the mountain flood in a stream in the Black Fire Forest, as if the gods had given them without needing human excavation. I took them back home and opened them, taking out a batch of divine stones. According to our town's laws, these also need to be taxed."

  **