Eric Turner sighed and walked toward the school gate, but to his surprise, there was a man and a woman standing just inside the gate. The man was handsome, with a slightly mischievous smile on his face, while the woman was tall and slender, her beautiful long legs drawing the attention of everyone around.

  "Ethan, Grace!" As soon as Eric Turner saw the two of them, he called out excitedly and quickly ran over to them.

  The two also saw Eric Turner, and natural smiles appeared on their faces. Ethan Brooks even stepped forward and patted him lightly on the shoulder, saying, "I came to your house yesterday morning to look for you, but I had no idea where you went. So? You felt like going shopping too?"

  Eric Turner's heart stirred. He had already decided last night not to tell the two of them about the Investiture of the Gods for now. The two of them were just ordinary people; if he told them about it and the other holders of the Investiture of the Gods found out, they would be in grave danger. So it was better to wait until he had dealt with the other holders before telling them the details. He immediately smiled and said, "Nothing special. Do you remember the girl I saved the day before yesterday? She just lost her mother and was badly frightened, so I bought her an ancient jade to help calm her down."

  Grace Miller also walked over at this moment, smiling as she said, "We don't have as much money as you do. First place in the entrance exam, first in the national math competition—your scholarship is way more than ours..."

  Eric Turner gave Grace Miller a gentle smile without saying anything. Then he turned to look at Ethan Brooks. He knew this friend's personality well; if there wasn't something going on, he wouldn't have gathered the two of them so urgently, so there must be something he wanted to discuss.

  Sure enough, Ethan Brooks nodded and said, "Let's find a place to talk in detail."

  The other two didn't object, so they followed him to a garden in the school, found a few stone benches, and sat down. Ethan Brooks didn't stand on ceremony and spoke up right away: "I'm planning to take a leave from school... I already told Grace the details yesterday. I was going to discuss it with you too, but you weren't around, so I came today especially to talk to you."

  "Why?" Eric Turner immediately looked at Grace Miller. The girl silently nodded, so he turned to Ethan Brooks and asked seriously.

  "...Actually, the three of us are all geniuses—I'm not bragging. We've already learned everything in college, even master's and doctoral level knowledge. There's really no point in staying here any longer. What does that diploma even mean to us?" Ethan Brooks turned his head away and continued, "Do you remember a year ago when you gave me a hundred thousand yuan? Over the past year, I've already made over five hundred thousand. I've decided to use this half a million to go out and make my way. If I stay in school, it'll just hold me back too much, so I've decided to take a break from school—maybe forever. Do you remember our dream? I have to take this step eventually..."

  "Change the world?" Eric Turner gave a bitter smile.

  When he was ten, there was a fire at the orphanage. That fire left a burn scar on his face, but for Ethan Brooks... it left a wound on his heart that would never heal, not even until the day he died...

  (...No! Something's wrong!)

  Just as Eric Turner was about to speak, a voice suddenly rang out in his mind. He felt a bit baffled, but then he immediately realized—there really was something wrong! Five hundred thousand wasn't a huge amount, but it wasn't small either. With Ethan Brooks's intelligence, he might really achieve something big in twenty years if he went out into the world. But for now, there was no need for him to leave school. After all, both Eric Turner and Grace Miller were here—they were his only family. Would he really be willing to leave his family behind? Unless there was some pressing problem forcing him to go...

  So what was this problem?

  In that instant, Eric Turner's mind was racing, considering countless possibilities, until a sudden flash of insight pierced his thoughts and he almost cried out... the Investiture of the Gods!

  Such a sudden change, and earlier Ethan Brooks had asked about his whereabouts yesterday, and after hearing his answer, looked relieved... and now he insisted on leaving school, plus the fact that five hundred thousand wasn't enough to do anything major... If you put all this together, the most likely explanation was that Ethan Brooks had obtained a fragment of the Investiture of the Gods, figured out how to use it, and guessed that there might be other holders as well. So he planned to leave school to keep danger away from Eric Turner and Grace Miller...

  There was more than a seventy percent chance that Ethan Brooks had obtained the Investiture of the Gods...

  The same voice echoed in Eric Turner's mind again.

Chapter Six: Rift in the Heart (Part One)

  "I don't agree!"