Complete the Mission

Lin Ke held the flower out in front of him in an extremely high stakes bid. He was hoping that the tiger would still want the flower, and would stop for long enough so that Lily could complete the teleportation array.

Sure enough, the tiger stopped a few steps in front of Lin Ke. It looked as if it was contemplating what to do, whether it should kill Lin Ke, and risk destroying the flower, or try to intimidate him into giving it the flower.

"Three-Eyed White Tiger King!" Lin Ke shouted, hoping the beast could understand human language. "I can give you this flower okay? But I will only give you this flower if you let me live!"

The Tiger, seemingly understanding the words, nod. "Roar roar!" It cries.

Lin Ke, having no clue what it was saying, wiped away the sweat on his brows nonchalantly. "Okay! I will put the flower down where I am now and I will back off okay?" Lin Ke shouts. "You can only come get the flower when I cannot see you or feel your aura anymore okay?" He tries to talk slowly in order to buy more time.

The Tiger nods and Lin Ke nods back. Slowly, he bends down to "put the flower down".

'Please Lily? Is it done?" Lin Ke yells in his head. If she didn't finish now, it would be all over!

"Yup, done!" Lily replies. "Initiating Teleportation Sequence! Brace yourself!"

The Tiger, as if sensing something was amiss, roars and leaps forward at Lin Ke, however, it was too late, and Lin Ke blinks out of existence.

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When Lin Ke opened his eyes, the sight of a dark cave greeted him. Taking a moment to adjust his eyes, Lin Ke looked around for Lily. She was still lying at the same location she was earlier, with bandages all over her otherwise flawless, smooth skin. After almost dying once again, Lin Ke couldn't help but stare at the peacefully sleeping Lia.

"Wow! How beautiful! I've never seen such exquisite beauty before! Ah! I can't control myself!" An amused voice says inside his head.

Embarrassed, Lin Ke turns away from Lia and looks down at the flower in his hand. Up close, the flower was exuding even more of a mysterious energy. It gave off a nice refreshing scent that made Lin Ke feel like his head was clearing up just from smelling it.

"Lily, didn't you need the flower?" Lin Ke asks.

"Yeah, just put it into your spatial storage space, I'll take care of it!" Lily says. "Now, I think it's time for you to begin painting the picture of the Three-Eyed White Tiger right?" She suddenly appears beside Lin Ke.

With that said, the cave suddenly lights up all around. Crystal lanterns were now hanging from the walls of the cave and near one of the lanterns, at the back of the cave, was an easel, a stool, a bunch of paint canisters, as well as a palette and many other tools.

Lin Ke looks on in surprise, as he wasn't expecting such a large change that quickly. Blinking his eyes to get them used to the light, Lin Ke sits down on the stool.

Before he took out his brush, he looked at Lily and asked. "Can you heal Lia now? I'm pretty sure that you said you'll heal her once I got you the flower."

Lily thinks about it. "Hmmm. I think I did say that. Okay! I'll heal her now!" Lily walked over to where Lia was lying and rested a paw on Lia's forehead. Closing her cat eyes, Lily concentrated her powers and channeled them through Lia's body. After a minute, it didn't seem like much was happening, so Lin Ke turned back to his canvas.

This time, he had all the colors that he needed, but he didn't know what scene he should paint. Should he paint the scene of the tiger fighting the eagle? When the tiger collapsed? The tiger over the eagle's dead body? After thinking about it for a moment, he felt it hit him. Yes! A beautiful scene, a powerful scene, one that would show the true glory of the Three-Eyed White Tiger King! Yes! Lin Ke smiled excitedly. He could already see the artwork come together in his head, and he had a clear image of what he was going to paint.

Lin Ke looks at the small golden brush mark on his right palm, wondering how he should get it to come out, however, the moment he thought that, in a burst of light, he felt the weight of a brush in his hand. He looked wondrously at it before quickly recovering. Lin Ke focused his attention on his canvas, and everything else faded away.

As he painted, his brush made beautiful arcs on the canvas, drawing strokes here and there. The brush constantly morphing and changing shape, the colors constantly blending together, the artwork slowly coming together. Lin Ke had a look of pure concentration on his face as he worked. Despite being concentrated on his work, he still smiled here or there, thinking about the painting, and admiring his own work as it came together. Finally, after around an hour or two, Lin Ke finally finished. Putting his brush down, Lin Ke stood up to stretch.

When he looked over, he saw that Lily was currently lying next to Lia. Walking over to the two of them, Lin Ke noticed that all the bandages on Lia's body were now gone, and all the cuts over her body were also gone. There was no sign of scars, no signs that she ever got hurt in the first place. Instead, Lia was peacefully sleeping away.

"You're finished?" Lily suddenly spoke into his mind.

"Yeah. I'm confident that it'll meet your standards." Lin Ke replies.

Trodding over to the easel in the corner of the cave, Lily says. "Well, we'll have to see about that."