章 276: Realization
No unexpected situation happened for a whole week. Yang Zhai managed to deal with every situation that happened in the previous month.
As Yang Zhai didn't have much to do here, he defended the village twelve hours a day, cultivated four hours a day, and trained with his body for two hours. For six hours, he would rest. This went on for a week, resulting in him accumulating eighty-four thousand essence stones.
In the past, I knew Luo Sect was extremely rich, but not this much. Do they know the location of a mountain or a mine of essence stones?: Yang Zhai reflects.
His storage bracelet could only store two hundred thousand essence stones. However, he didn't mind as he had his inheritance place to store essence stones.
But he decided to only use it once his bracelet was close to being filled. He also needed to store sacrifices for the void Kas.
Before rank 4, as Kas were living beings, they could eat. But after being activated by the void power, they would turn into stones.
After that, on every use, these kas would keep to weaken and eventually die and break. To recover them, he would need to sacrifice specific things for them.
This was the reason Yang Zhai activated the Second Life Ka before reaching rank 4. He didn't want his heart to become stone and then work.
Because it would constantly keep on weakening and would put him in danger all the time, even during his sleep. He would need to keep on giving it human body parts constantly, which was not possible all the time, especially during a battle.
Some Kas would keep the same preference as they did before becoming void kas, but some would have it changed.
Such as, from the Kas he had, Dug Worm Ka could eat anything as it was an Earth path Ka; the same was the case for the Earth Burial Ka. Second Life requires human body parts.
Strength Ka required a little bit of his strength to recover which it would whenever Yang Zhai practiced. Only when Yang Zhai allowed it though.
Blood Demon Ka required blood. Meliora required Dew Grass, a rank 2 material. Galewing required carcasses of Wind Beetles. As for Endra, it required Iron Petals.
Dug Worm and Earth Burial were earth path kas. Strength Ka was a body path ka. Blood Demon Ka was a blood path. Meliora was a was a wood path ka. Galewing was a wind path ka, and Endra was a metal path ka.
Right now, all his Kas could last for a while if not used intensively.
At rank 4, most cultivators would start to possess kas belonging to a particular path. They would also start cultivating a particular path. At rank 5, they would mostly have both. But here was Yang Zhai, no particular path and no particular kas.
All of his kas belonged to different paths, which was not beneficial but rather a disadvantage. At Rank 6, cultivators begin to use kas in unison to launch combined attacks, significantly boosting both their offensive and defensive power.
"I'm already forfeiting the benefits of Rank 6 since I won't become a false immortal. Because of this, I must do everything I can to narrow the strength gap between us. I need to choose a specific path and fully develop in it," Yang Zhai contemplated.
He was sitting in his room, cultivating.
After selecting a path, he would also need to choose the ires associated with it, along with the corresponding techniques. This would not only boost his strength but also minimize conflicts between these elements.
The toll on his body from using the techniques would also lessen if he restricted himself to a single path.
Even though not for him for now, but for others, mastery of that path also mattered.
He was lacking in too many aspects even though his foundation was very strong, except for the red lines though.
"Just like on Earth, people choose specific subjects to study and develop in. The more time and practice they invest in these subjects, the more mastery they achieve."
"In a quiz, the one with greater mastery would prevail, if not unlucky. Similarly, there are degrees representing those mastery levels. And that's how new inventions are made." Yang Zhai contemplated.
"This is one of the major reasons why people choose specific paths to cultivate. A person mastering a single path would gain more depth in their knowledge and experience than someone mastering two paths, due to the focused time and effort."
"A cultivator working on both the Water and Fire paths might reach level 5 in each, while another cultivator dedicating the same amount of time to just one path would reach level 10 in that path. As a result, their techniques¹ would be far more profound."
Yang Zhai muttered.
People call this knowledge and experience a realization of that path. Their ranks were Early, Mid, Third, Peak, Perfect, and Over. And Yang Zhai was third or above third in almost every path.
His planning of reincarnation hadn't just begun in his last decades but in his last few centuries. As a result, he studied almost every path and everything he could about the world.
As such, even though his strength and foundation became firm in his previous life, he was left behind. Otherwise, he could have reached a higher rank. He had to put all the effort he could in what he did.
But, he was still not sure which path he should develop in though.
He had three weeks left to make his choice, as he would receive his set of kas afterward. The set he chose must be advantageous to him.
That night,
Yang Zhai was sleeping when he heard noises.
He was awakened from his sleep and saw The Last One standing near the door.
He had placed The Last One there to guard him while he slept.
He stood up and looked outside the window, just to see people running and fighting the water hounds. It was also raining intensely.
As he was on the second floor of the inn, the hounds had not broken in.
"Brother Fen, what should we do?"
Jun Haru and the others entered his room in a hurry and asked. They had almost come to be dependent on him and didn't take any action recklessly.
"Forget about the inside of the village. They are mostly attacking low-rank cultivators and mortals, which is beneficial for us. Do not think of helping anyone except for each other." Yang Zhai turned around and started his instructions.
"Deal with any rank 3 hounds you see; avoid rank 4, rank 2, and rank 1 hound. Do not go for the ones that have more than two rank 3 hounds. As for me, I need to be somewhere."
Yang Zhai recalled The Last One and jumped out of the window.
"Do not hesitate to sacrifice others if need be: otherwise, you won't be able to last with me for long." While jumping out of the window, he said this.
He chose a direction and started running. He would also use the Galewind from time to time to increase his speed.
/!*****!*****!/
1 Techniques mentioned here aren't just the techniques of this story but general ones that include battle tactics, kas combinations, ires uses, and much more.
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