Yang Zhai looked at his Essence water in his aperture. His essence water was decreasing and was being refilled. It was because Yang Zhai was using his aperture to absorb the Essence water. And then was absorbing the spiritual energy from the essence stones to convert it into the essence water.
Tonight, Yang Zhai was going to break through to Rank 1 third stage. His breakthrough this time took him eight days. It took him eight days to break through into the third stage because of not being able to cultivate enough, even after using the Strength Ka. In his opinion, this was a waste. If he had been able to cultivate to his heart's content, he knew that he would have already broken through to the third stage. He could only cultivate at night. Then he also had to sleep properly. Thus, he also could not cultivate all night.
But, there was no choice. He had to deal with the other matters as well. He was no fool to focus only on his cultivation. Even though cultivation was the most important thing to an individual, it was not all there was to this world. Such as, if he had focused on his cultivation and had left his position as a leader, then he would be ordered around by others. It would consume more of his time.
Then, he would not be able to order the kids around for his benefit. Like, he used two kids to refine the Strength Ka and because of the Strength Ka, he was able to cultivate quickly. After that, he took his time to deal with the librarian and the Moon Bull inn's manager. It benefitted him greatly; such as, he could get the information he needed from the librarian and the Essence stones from the manager.
Yang Zhai was constantly using the Essence stones to refill his aperture. His aperture started to slowly vibrate. A white glow began to appear in his aperture. This white glow slowly turned into a white light that began to permeate his whole aperture.
After that, his aperture shook. Then, it became calm after a few seconds. All the shaking stopped, and the white light also disappeared. Essence water in his aperture also calmed down.
Another dark red line had appeared in his aperture. Now, there were a total of three dark red lines in his aperture, indicating that he was a Rank 1 Third Stage cultivator now.
Yang Zhai examined his body. There were no changes. His body and the aperture were the same, except that the strength of his aperture and the Essence Water had increased.
"Sigh, the Aurora also did not benefit me this time. Anyway, at least, I advanced. It will be helpful in tomorrow's competition. After all, I am losing my sight slowly. It is even becoming difficult for me to read other peoples' expressions. The blurriness is increasing. At this rate, I will be left with blind eyes. I need to quickly reach the peak stage before I get completely blind."
"I need to reach the peak, I am curious to see if my guess is right or not. I wonder if what I discovered in my previous life is true. This world is truly mysterious. A world, where beasts run rampant. But in reality, it is the humans who run rampant." Yang Zhai was lost in his thoughts. He wanted to reach the peak stage to see if what he discovered in his previous life was true.
Yang Zhai looked at the Blue Gem that was placed beside him. Yang Zhai picked up the Blue Gem in his hand.
A person's aperture was only able to store Kas and nothing else. Of course, his Aurora was an exception. This Aurora could be considered his body part, as it was connected with his soul. Not just that, this Aurora also perfectly blended with his aperture. This Aurora was mysterious to even Yang Zhai. Its power was still unknown to him. The pureness of this power (Aurora) was still obscure to him.
Yang Zhai had made himself forget some things whilst he reincarnated. Such as, he could remember that he had forgotten a path, information about some Kas that were related to the path that he forgot, some treasures that were related to the same path, and the techniques related to that path as well. Almost everything that was related exclusively to a certain path was forgotten by him.
But he remembered one thing, and that was that he had made himself forget about that path because he wanted nobody to know about that path.
"I wonder if this Aurora is also related to that path. Or, could it be…" Yang Zhai muttered to himself.
Yang Zhai looked at the Aurora in his aperture again. He suddenly had a thought: Could it be that this Aurora is the key to that path or to unlocking my memory?
"If it is true, then this Aurora is far more important than I thought. If I made myself forget about that unknown path, then this path is definitely far more important and valuable, that I didn't even want to remember that path, fearing that someone might find out about this path."
"Thank goodness, I was careful and did not use Aurora's aura in any fight. I need to hide it as much as possible until I become stronger." Yang Zhai thought to himself.
If his guess was right, then he had to be more careful in the future.
After all, Yang Zhai had gone to the extent of making himself forget about the path to hide it from the others. And a cautious person like him doing something like this was no small matter.
A person's aperture could only store the Kas. It was because they were so pure that even an evil Ka had pure power. And then, they possessed the natural laws of the world. And for some unknown reason, a Ka was attracted to a person's Essence water, so even the Kas did not reject the Essence water.
However, there were always exceptions in the world. There were a few things that could also be stored in the aperture. And the Blue Gem was one of these exceptions. It did not belong to any path.
A Blue Gem could be stored in a person's aperture.
Yang Zhai placed the Blue Gem near his abdomen. The Blue Gem disappeared after it was brought close to his aperture and appeared in his aperture. This Blue Gem was floating precisely in the middle of his aperture.
After a while, all of the Essence water in Yang Zhai's aperture started to move slightly. Then the Essence water began to float toward the Blue Gem slowly.
The Essence Water then began to enter the Blue Gem. The Blue Gem was absorbing all of Yang Zhai's Essence water like a black hole.
The Essence water entered the Blue Gem from one side and was coming out from the other side. When the Essence water came out of the Blue Gem, its aura had already been changed to Rank 1 mid-stage. However, its strength was still at the Rank 1 third stage. But from the aura, Yang Zhai's Essence water did not seem like it was the third stage at all.
In fact, even when Yang Zhai uses his Essence water, its aura would still be at the mid-stage.
This was why Yang Zhai wanted the Blue Gem. Now, when he reaches the peak stage, he would be able to hide his cultivation from the outside world.
It would benefit him greatly. He could cultivate freely to his heart's content. Nobody would suspect him now.
Now, he only needed to reach the peak stage.
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章節 73: Chapter 73:Questions
"It's like this, one day, all of a sudden, a boy gets attacked by four men in the jungle. A fight broke out. In the fight, the boy was —without a doubt— at disadvantage. During the battle, the boy was played around by the four men. He could not do anything, but this was something that everyone knew." Yang Zhai halted for a moment. His back was facing the librarian.
"There, the torture of the boy began. During the torture, the boy was almost at his last breath. He thought that he was going to die; but, for some reason, the four men stopped beating the boy. The boy was lying on the ground, helpless. He opened his eyes to look. Do you know what the boy saw?" Yang Zhai turned to look at the librarian and asked.
The librarian kept quiet and did not say anything. He was expressionless as a rock.
"The boy saw a man standing in front of him. The man's back was facing the boy. This new man had killed three out of the four men. The fourth man was lying injured on the ground, alive. The new man who had appeared captured the injured man for interrogation. And something impressive was revealed by the interrogation. Do you know what was discovered?" Yang Zhai asked the librarian again.
But this time, there was a slight movement in the librarian's eyes. Even though the librarian kept quiet and tried to hide his emotions, Yang Zhai knew that the arrow he released had already struck its target.
"The boy asked his savior about his identity. Do you know who the man was?" Yang Zhai asked another question.
The librarian still kept quiet.
"Well, the man turned out to be a higher-up. But, do you know from which clan the higher-up belonged?" Yang Zhai queried again.
This time, Yang Zhai saw fear in the librarian's eyes. However, the librarian was still quiet.
Yang Zhai did not mind and continued,
"The higher-up belonged to the Bai Clan. Indeed, he was none other than an elder of the Bai Clan. And do you know who the boy was?"
Sweat began to appear on the librarian's forehead.
Yang Zhai smiled after seeing this. This man was a rank 2 cultivator. Yang Zhai was no match for him. But, a lion was stronger than a man, even then, a lion still danced for man.
"I don't know —unfortunately, or fortunately— it was Yang Zhai, meaning me. Even now, that nightmare haunts me and makes me fear the jungle. But, the elder and I managed to discover the one who gave my information to the four men. Do you know who it was?" Yang Zhai stopped this time and his tone turned serious. He looked at the librarian.
The librarian was sweating profusely. However, the librarian could not keep silent. He said with a stuttering voice,
"Who… who was… the man?"
"Hmm, you finally spoke. I thought you would not speak even if the elder came himself. You know the answer. I just want to ask you one thing, did you not even for a second, think of your own kin? Ok, I am not your brother, but I and you have the same blood, we have the same ancestors, so, why, why did you do this?" Yang Zhai's tone turned emotional. Sadness could be felt in his voice. His eyes turned teary.
The librarian kept quiet and lowered his head.
"So, you won't answer. I thought so, Elder was right, you have already turned evil. He wanted to come himself, but I stopped him. Now, it appears to me that he was right, he should have come himself. Goodbye," Yang Zhai said and was about to leave, when,
"Stop, brother. Please, forgive me. I should not have done this. Please, stop the elder from informing anyone. I promise I will do everything you want. I would even stop providing the information." The librarian hurriedly came in front of Yang Zhai and began to beg. He was agitated and sweating. His face was filled with fear.
The librarian knew the punishment of killing one's own kind and betraying the clan. The librarian knew that after the elder takes action, there would be only one fate for him. And that was an absolute torture. The librarian knew that if that happened, he would wish for death every day. Even death would be a blessing to him then. Thus, he only wanted to stop Yang Zhai and the elder from taking action.
Yang Zhai had deliberately mentioned the torture in his self-made story. He wanted the librarian to realize that there was only one fate for betraying the clan, and that was an absolute torture, especially after killing one's own kins.
This fate could not be accepted by the one who lived for riches and wealth. Specifically, when a person was already used to living with these things. So, how could the librarian accept the fate of being tortured for his whole life? This struck a fear of losing this life in his mind.
Then, Yang Zhai added an elder in his story to deter the librarian from having any harmful intentions toward Yang Zhai. Yang Zhai wanted to put a point in the librarian's head that even if something happened to Yang Zhai, the librarian would still not be freed. Instead, he would be even in a more worse situation.
Then Yang Zhai cried and showed some pity to let the librarian have some hope. Yang Zhai even added that he had managed to stop the elder from doing something to the librarian. This gave the librarian some hope. Imagining that he could still live his old life, the librarian became happy. And, of course, in happiness, a person could promise anything. And in fear, a person would sacrifice anything. Therefore, the librarian promised Yang Zhai that he was willing to do anything.
"No, no, I don't want you to do anything. You can even keep all of the profit that you obtained, but you will provide me with all the information that I need in the future. I also want all of the information on the elders of the academy and the kids. If you can, also provide me with the information about the second Academy. And, I need you to do something for me." Yang Zhai looked in the direction of the Ma clan and smiled.
His plan was going to shake the two clans in the future. Many lives were going to change because of him. A future that was destined was going to change. He was going to go against destiny and fate. After all, he was already free from fate, so fate could not stop him.
"Jun Nie, I wonder if you will be able to endure the shock in the future?" Yang Zhai muttered to himself. His voice was so low that even the librarian could not hear.
"What is your name?" Yang Zhai asked the librarian. He never got to know the name of the librarian even in his previous life.
"My name is Hie Di. I really can't thank you enough for the mercy and the great favor you have done for me. Please, take whatever you want from the study hall." The librarian was extremely happy. He could not believe that he was saved, even after an elder of the clan discovered his deeds.
"No need to thank me. But, remember that betraying me will only give you more regrets. I took pity on you as you're my kin¹. Thus, you should also think of me as your kin." Yang Zhai said this and left.
…..
Five days passed,
On the night before the competition, Yang Zhai was sitting on his bed and meditating. He was concentrating on his aperture because he was about to break through to Rank 1 third stage. And this was going to help Yang Zhai greatly in his plans.
And a Blue Gem was also placed on the bed beside Yang Zhai.
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1-Kin: a group of persons of common ancestry. Originally referring to one's family or race, kin narrowed to refer just to one's blood relations. Your "next of kin" is your closest family member: spouse, child, parent, or sibling. Of course, as a clan has people with the same ancestors, they are also kin. Therefore, in this novel, clan members would also be referred to as kin. Thank you!