“There are two types of light stones. One can only act as a medium for the Atlanteans’ lineage to manipulate light and heat. Just like how the shellfish can produce pearls if there’s sand inside it, this stone can be produced in our body naturally,” Trish explained. “The other type of light stone, on the other hand, can be used as a medium for manipulating light and fire but also can be used to activate the supernatural recessive genes hidden in the blood of the people having the Atlanteans’ bloodline. In fact, even if one is a purebred Atlantean, most of them are not capable of manipulating light and fire the moment they are born. According to the different source of the light and heat collected, the second type of light stone can be classified into four different levels, which are ‘mechanical light stone’ collected from industrial flames; the ‘magma light stone’ collected from the lava of a volcano; the ‘planet light stone’ tempered in a high temperature and high pressure environment deep in a planet’s core; and the ‘stellar light stone’ that uses a decaying star as a source of energy, albeit in a risky manner…”

Upon hearing their best friend’s words, Tina and Sheila exclaimed in surprise again and again. Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, did not have any negative thoughts and merely wanted to know about the Atlantis more as he listened to Trish’s description while contemplating about the real purpose of this ‘guest’ that had travelled across hundreds of millions of kilometers to visit the Earth, whether they really had goodwill or not.

After a while, the girl, whose low spirit was swept away and was gradually getting excited, continued to ramble on. “According to the two Atlanteans, light and fire are positive diverging energy so they’re easily absorbed by organisms. If you’re always by my side, even if you can’t see the light using your naked eyes, the radiation of the bioenergy can still bring great benefits to you. Tina, Sheila, we always spend a lot of time together every week, so after a while, who knows, maybe your bodies can accumulate power and by then, we’ll definitely be able to get a different kind of gain when we study that thick book of the foreign world again.”

“Wow, you mean, just like how an ordinary iron block will become magnetic as well after being placed next to a magnet for a long time, Tina and I will be able to gain supernatural energy from you too, Trish?” Sheila’s eyes widened as she exclaimed excitedly, “This is great…”

“C’mon, is it that hard to wait for two years?” The young man could not help but interrupt the girl’s exclamation. “Sheila, I can understand your longing for youth and supernatural power, but why can’t you use a safe and effective method to obtain it?”

“Oh Lisheng, don’t you understand when you see the Atlanteans’ delicate and lustrous skin, and that fine soft hair that looks as though they do special hair care 24/7? The power of light and fire suit women more. Perhaps you may be able to safely fix me at the age of twenty-five, but look at Trish’s face now, it’s as taut as baby’s…”

“This is really f*cked up!” Zhang Lisheng could no longer listen to the girl’s nonsense. He stood up and said with a blank expression, “I was wrong, Sheila. The structures of both of our brains will become different when it comes to certain topics so I shouldn’t even have started the topic of youth with you at all. I’m sorry, let us go have some food. I’m a little hungry.”

“Sure, baby. Let us go celebrate for Trish. The first reason is to celebrate her first successful charity party as a political figure and the second reason is to celebrate her acquiring of a superpower that allows her to become more beautiful and younger!” Sheila pulled her two best friends up from the sofa and said loudly.

Just like that, the four of them walked out of the room, walked down the hallway to the elevator door, and went to the hotel restaurant to enjoy a sumptuous dinner.

In the next few months, Zhang Lisheng stayed in Noah World. Other than building slaughterhouses for the oasis cities formed by the US state governments that had signed a contract with LS Group and releasing his wizard gus in the trenches underground to start the running of the factories, he would either go to the western city in New Washington A to see his mom from time to time or accompany his girlfriend. He could see that both Tina and Sheila were getting younger and more charming in the assimilation given by their best friend who could control light and heat. Trish, on the other hand, was beginning to show more and more powerful capabilities after getting more familiar with the light and heat manipulation method.

The river of time flowed pass unwittingly. In a blink of an eye, Christmas was coming soon. Originally, according to the plan, Tina should have already started going back to New York together with Zhang Lisheng, but there was a sudden last minute change. Due to the reason that most of the employees in her company were unwilling to return to Earth to celebrate the holiday due to the cost and tedious efforts, she must become the host to hold a grand Christmas ball to appease the public feelings during the first year.

As for Tina’s two best friends, Trish decided to spend her first Christmas Eve after immigration with her voters in the community square; Sheila, on the other hand, wanted to take advantage of this special period when the US Labor Law was still unable to be extended to New Washington A, to use high salaries to practice what she preaches to lure her employees to only take one day off so that they could continue to rush the work before the deadline of the project on the construction site. All in all, the girls, whose careers had just gotten on the right track, could not extract themselves from the foreign world.

In the piercingly cold winter, the weather in the desert became more and more ridiculous. In front of a four-person square table in the corner of an avant-garde bar, Zhang Lisheng sat on a soft chair under a dim light, looking at the glass door that would let in a whistling wind sound every time it was opened and closed. Drinking his iced Coke, he asked, “Tina, Trish and Sheila, have you guys thought about it? Do you guys really want to spend your Christmas here in this sh*thole that doesn’t even have snow, that you’ll have to wear a T-shirt during the day but has a night that is still cold even if the fireplace is lit?”

“Yes baby. I’m sorry that I can’t go back with you.” Tina said apologetically. At the same time, Trish nodded silently while Sheila chuckled. “Lisheng, if you’re willing to spend your Christmas Eve cuddling in bed with me in pajamas, of course I can leave those sweaty construction workers behind and return to New York with you.”

Upon hearing the girl’s flirty words that would appear from time to time, Zhang Lisheng, who was already used to it, ignored it like a deaf person. However, a young man, who was wearing a retro hippie-style leather coat with a goatee on his chin, laughed heartily, revealing his white teeth and raised his glass. “Hey, pretty lady, are you inviting me to spend a long Christmas Eve with you?”

In such a fashionable bar full of young people, beautiful girls without male companions would often come across such mocking, that was actually more like a compliment, from strangers.

Unfortunately, Sheila, who was about to say goodbye to Zhang Lisheng tonight, did not have the mood to play such a flirty game with other people. She merely shook her head and crossed her hands to gesture for him to stop.

A sensible womanizer would stop at this time, but that little goatee — whether it was because he was under the alcohol’s influence or that he was just a newbie who purposely put on a facade of a skilled flirt — actually finished his drink in his glass and poured another glass before raising his brows at his four companions of three men and one woman. Drunkenly, he continued to say, “Oh, pretty lady. Look, your friend already has a boyfriend so why do you still need to stay single. Come on, don’t reject us. We have two strong men here. We’ll guarantee your satisfaction, or perhaps, that beauty beside you…”

When the young man was talking, he suddenly saw the girl, who was wearing an orange head scarf sitting next to the sexy girl he was flirting with, turned around to look at him. At once, the fair face, exquisite facial features and the red lips that looked as though they were burning vigorously caused him to lose his voice at once.

“Are you talking about me?” Looking at the little goatee who was at a loss for words, a smile that was so soul-stirringly beautiful, appeared on the corner of Trish’s mouth. Her black pupil turned to become red in an instant, and abruptly enlarged to fill her entire eyeball.

With a loud ‘bang’, under the light gaze that swept across by the dazzling red eyes that looked like two newborn suns, the alcohol that had just been poured into the glass in the young goatee’s hand suddenly burst into flames, transforming into a burning pillar of fire. In a shocked exclamation of “AHHH….”, it was knocked over by its owner.

At that instant, high-quality tequila burned on the little goatee’s body. In the midst of screaming in the bar, the little goatee swatted at the flame on his body in despair and horror.

“Make way! Make way…” Upon seeing this horrible scene, the bartender lifted a fire extinguisher from the bar and leaped over the bar. Shouting at the top of his lungs, he rushed over to the customer, who had been consumed by fire. However, at the moment when he was about to spray the dry powder, a magical thing suddenly took place. Just like how the fire had ignited suddenly, the flame disappeared in an instant without a trace.

The customers in the bar looked at the young goatee, who was still screaming terrified like crazy, and were baffled to find that other than his clothes that were burnt to ashes and his eyebrows that had disappeared, there was no other sign of burns on his body at all.

At this moment, Trish, who had a satisfied smile, turned her head and no longer looked at the unfortunate soul, who was almost naked now. She smiled at Zhang Lisheng sitting in front of her and said, “It’s already late now, Lisheng. Aren’t you going to catch a plane tomorrow? We should go.”

“What a fine and amazing flame manipulation skill!” As though he had not heard the girl, the young man frowned and whisper in amazement, “I wonder what would your voters think if they saw this?”

“The Deep Spring Community is located in the west of the middle of the New Washington A. This is the eastern part of the city and besides, I’m wearing color contact lenses and my hair is wrapped in a headscarf. The ‘if’ that you said will never exist,” Trish smiled as she said.

“It’s true that they won’t find out, but don’t you think that you’ve already become lost in your power?” Zhang Lisheng thought about it and looked at the girl’s eyes that had returned to normal. “Do you think the old you would do this?”

“If I had this kind of power before, I would do the same thing when I met a rogue. Believing in Catholicism doesn’t mean that I’m weak,” Trish replied affirmatively. She then asked, “You felt that I’ve crossed the line? Well, if I hadn’t made any move and he came to harass me and Sheila, what would you have done then?”

“I’d have most likely killed him, but I’m not a religious nor a selfless person. You, on the other hand, are different. Trish, use your power cautiously, you are its master and should not be dominated by it.” Zhang Lisheng took out two to three 100 dollar bills from his pocket and threw it onto the wooden table, before standing up and saying, “It’s very late now. We do indeed have to leave.”