Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 115: A Thin Curtain

The next few days passed quietly on the island.

Aren and Daniel kept mostly to themselves, surviving off the rations they had managed to bring from the crash. Daniel spent most of his time in the glowing clearing, occasionally taking a breath to hang out with the surrounding animals and magical beasts.

Meanwhile, Aren returned to the lake again and again. Each day, he tried...and each day he failed.

The Reverse Waterfall rejected him every single time. Sometimes he tried approaching it slowly, easing his body toward the rising current. Other times, he rushed in, hoping momentum might help him endure the force.

Once he even tried entering the stream from a different angle entirely... nothing worked.

The moment his body touched the current, the same thing always happened—water would violently throw him back out like a loitering intruder.

Now, on the third day, Aren sat on a flat stone near the lake’s edge, staring at the towering column of water flying into the sky.

"...This doesn’t make sense at all."

He rested his chin on his hand, watching the endless spiral of water.

It couldn’t be incompatibility. If anything, his water element should have made this place perfect for him.

And the current itself wasn’t impossibly fast either. Powerful, yes—but not beyond something a Mystic should be able to endure.

So what was the problem?

Aren’s eyes narrowed slightly as he studied the phenomenon again. Because clearly...something about the way he was approaching it was wrong. Aren’s gaze wandered absently along the edge of the clearing as he thought.

That was when he noticed it.

A small bat hung upside down from the branch of a nearby tree, its wings wrapped around its body as the creature slept peacefully...right beside the waterfall.

Aren’s eyes lingered on it.

"...Huh."

The bat didn’t seem disturbed at all by the violent flow of energy nearby. In fact, if anything, it almost looked comfortable.

More than that, he could clearly feel the surrounding water energy flowing through the air... and gently drifting toward the small creature.

"...Wait, how is that—?"

The energy wasn’t resisting the bat. Instead, the energy flowed into it naturally, almost like it belonged there in the first place.

Aren frowned slightly.

Why?

The answer came almost immediately after he pondered.

"That’s it...gravity."

Without realizing it, he had been circulating his ether the way every Mystic normally did—letting the energy flow through his body from top to bottom, following the natural pull of gravity.

But the Reverse Waterfall was a phenomenon nobody could understand, and Aren was willing to bet that it didn’t follow the conventional rules.

"Worth a shot, I guess?" Aren muttered as he slowly stood.

He stepped back into the lake and approached the edge of the spiraling column once more. This time, before reaching out, he closed his eyes.

Inside his body, the flow of ether shifted. Instead of letting it fall downward through his channels, Aren forced the current in the opposite direction, matching the direction of the waterfall itself.

For a moment, everything felt strange, like switching your dominant hand after decades of using it. Then he reached out. His hand entered the current, and this time...energy flowed right into him.

Aren’s eyes snapped open.

"Haha! It worked! It really worked!" he yelled in excitement.

But just as quickly, he could feel the same energy leaking out. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Shit, gotta concentrate on absorbing and refining it.

Aren closed his eyes. Within his internal world, he found himself seated in the familiar lotus position upon the quiet expanse of his Internal Canvas.

To his side, the faint outline of his Dragon template stood dormant, almost like it was waiting for this.

For a moment, the incoming energy behaved exactly as expected. The massive stream of water energy rushed like a roaring river to the Fertile Core.

"Give me some of that."

With deliberate control, he intercepted the current. The massive stream of water energy split in two.

One portion continued flowing into the Core, slowly replenishing its reserves. But the rest—Aren guided it away from the core entirely, redirecting it toward the Canvas itself.

The moment the energy reached it, the shallow pool beneath the Dragon template began to change.

The once-murky water slowly cleared. Ripples spread across its surface as the energy settled into it, the small pond growing purer with every passing second.

Aren remained perfectly still in his lotus position as the process continued. After a while, his channels were beginning to ache.

The steady stream of energy pressing through his body was starting to reach its limit. Even with the dampener keeping the Fertile Core restrained, the sheer density of ether from the Reverse Waterfall was beginning to saturate his system.

With a soft sigh, Aren checked his Records.

[Water Element: Stage 3 → Stage 6]

Satisfied, he murmured. "...That’s enough for today."

With careful control, he cut off the flow. The roaring current outside immediately faded from his senses as he withdrew his hand from the rising water.

"That’s a lot more effective than I thought," he said slowly. "If I stay here for a while longer, I could master my Water Element."

The thought alone was tempting. Most Mystics either spent copious amounts of time or money to refine their element, slowly pushing through each stage with painstaking effort.

Yet here, after only a few days beside the Reverse Waterfall, his Water Element had already jumped three full stages.

"...Still," he murmured quietly.

Something about it bothered him. When he had first managed to touch the current, he expected the pressure to be overwhelming.

But that wasn’t what he had felt. If anything...it had felt strangely thin.

Aren frowned slightly as the memory replayed in his mind. The water had pushed against him, yes. The force was powerful, but there had been a moment when it felt almost hollow—like something was missing.

"...Weird."

He stood up from the rock and walked back toward the base of the rising current. This time, instead of just touching the edge, Aren pushed deeper into the spiraling column of water. The upward current wrapped around his body immediately.

He expected the force to pick him up and send him flying into the sky, but strangely, none of that happened.

Aren stumbled forward as his feet suddenly met solid ground again.

"...What?"

When Aren looked up, his eyes widened slightly. He was standing inside a small cavern carved into the cliff face. Behind him, the entire Reverse Waterfall rushed upward like a massive curtain of water.

"...No way."

Aren slowly turned around, staring at the hidden space concealed behind the rising current.

A cave—

Hidden inside the waterfall itself.