Yang Zhai was sitting on the chair in his room. He looked at the Ka, which looked like flesh. He examined it carefully. It was a Rank two Ka. Even though this was a Rank 2, it didn't require much Essence water to be activated. But it had to be set first. This Ka was considered one of the top Ka in the Rank 2 Kas.
He had already enslaved it after he came back to his room.
When it was set, nobody would be able to recognize this Ka, and it could be activated without any signs. It was a storage Ka, but if used well, it was a perfect weapon. But it had to be set in a perfect place. And Yang Zhai knew the perfect place to use it.
He brought a thick towel to his room. He folded it and made it even thicker. And when the towel was folded around to two feet square, he placed it on the bed. Then he sat beside the towel and picked a knife in his right hand. He pulled his left hand above the towel and began to cut his left palm's flesh with the knife. His expression did not change. He was used to this kind of pain. But as the pain began to increase, his left palm started to become numb from the excruciating pain. But his expression was still calm. He had to be calm to stay conscious and prevent any kind of mistakes.
His whole left hand had become bloody. The blood on his hand began to fall on the towel at an increasing speed and was dyed red. When he had almost removed one inch of flesh from his left palm, he stopped and activated the Ka, but something unexpected happened. As this Ka was sealed for a long time and because it had to be set, it required more Essence water and Yang Zhai's fifty-nine percent was not enough.
This Storage Ka was consuming his Essence water at a visible speed. He had not expected this outcome. When he had obtained this Ka in his previous life, he was already an immortal and had never used it. Its name was The Blood Storage.
Yang Zhai hurriedly threw the knife on the towel and pulled out the Essence stone he had gotten from the inheritance. One low-grade essence stone was enough for an early-stage cultivator, so he could use it twice to fill his aperture, as it was only 59 percent.
He closed his eyes and began to absorb the spiritual energy from the essence stone to convert it into the Essence water. He was doing two things at the same time: one was that he was consuming his essence water to activate the Ka and the second one was that he was absorbing the Spiritual energy from the essence stone. It was almost difficult for most of the kids to do it, as it required experience.
Yang Zhai had to hurriedly activate the Blood Storage Ka and set it. He was losing too much blood. And if this kept on, he might die from the excessive loss of blood. When the essence stone was almost completely consumed, the Ka finally activated. He willed it to fly toward his left palm.
The Ka flew and sat on his left palm, which was dyed red with blood. When it touched Yang Zhai's already cut palm, it began to spread and it seemed as if his palm was regenerating. About half a minute later, the Ka was already set and his hand seemed as good as ever.
His hand was almost fully covered in blood, and so did the towel. Yang Zhai was feeling tired and felt like he could faint at any moment. He had lost too much blood. But he could not faint right now and made himself stay awake forcefully.
He moved his left hand and felt numbness. However he could feel that his hand was fine, and it could be moved in a few hours. Yang Zhai picked up the towel that had his flesh in it and placed it under the bed. He wanted to get rid of it, but he was too tired. He hid the knife with the towel and went to his table that was placed in the corner. A bowl filled with water was placed on it. He soaked his left hand in the bowl and began to clean it. After that, he placed the bowl under the bed as well and slept.
The night passed and morning came,
Yang Zhai was standing outside the village on the outskirts of the forest. He moved his left arm forward and a towel appeared on it. He threw the towel on the ground and activated a Rank one fire technique. The towel began to burn, and a smell began to spread in the air. He had to get rid of the towel, or it would be difficult to explain the situation if someone discovered this bloody towel.
One week passed,
In a class, there were kids sitting on the floor and in front of them were floor tables. There were around twenty-nine kids sitting in this room.
After a while, someone came in from the gate to the right side. When everyone saw the man, they fell silent. He was wearing a blue attire. His hair was brown and extended to his shoulder and was curly. His eyes were brown as well and looked serious. The man came in front of the class and said,
"My name is Ren Fang, and I will be teaching you about the knowledge of cultivation and this world. You are here because you have already awakened your aperture. Out of the forty, four or so kids were useless and unable to cultivate, and the other seven or so were not able to awaken their aperture within a week. So, they won't be coming to this academy."
"But before we start, let me tell you something. As you all know that there were two places that took the exams, then I am sure you are also aware that there are two cultivation academies in this village. One of the two is the one that you are sitting in. Remember this, that you will soon have a competition with the other academy, so I don't want you kids to disappoint me." He stopped and continued,
"Now let me tell you the history of this world." The elder began to explain about this world to the kids in detail.
Heavens created the beasts to live in the world, but because they started running rampant, the heavens created humans.
But this time, the heavens didn't give them power, but instead intelligence.
But humans were too weak and to protect themselves, they created techniques.
However, techniques had a fatal weakness and that was that they couldn't be used to defend themselves because they harmed their bodies. Because of this, their bodies were too weak to defend against the beasts.
And when the heavens saw that they started suppressing beasts and that there would be wars between them, it became enraged at both beasts and humans, and to control them, it created a being, which contained the secrets of the heavens and earth.
But humans were too greedy. When they saw that this being contained secrets of the heavens and earth, they started using them as well. According to them, this race contained even purer and stronger powers than the techniques they invented.
This was a myth spread in this world.
"And this is the story known to us. It is said that when the ancient humans created the techniques to protect themselves, they discovered that the techniques affected their bodies. Because the techniques were an imitation of the natural laws, but because they were not real and were created by humans, they could be considered false and contradicted nature."
"Meaning, if a fire is created through a technique, it is an imitation of the real fire, that is a natural law. But because it is not real, it could be considered corrupted and affect human bodies that were created by the heavens, a law in themselves."
"Just like that, if someone keeps on using the techniques in a battle without clearing its side effects first, only two things will happen:First, because of the too much toll on their bodies, they will die. And second, it is said that there is a chance of becoming a spirit, but it is only a legend and I have never heard of someone becoming a spirit before. And it is said that the chance is one in a hundred thousandth. So, I would advise everyone to not use techniques too much in a battle, and you should always have some Kas with you to lessen the use of the techniques."
"As such, techniques can never be used to defend. Even when we attack, it leaves a toll on our bodies, then what would happen if we use these techniques on ourselves to defend ourselves? We would simply die and might even explode. There is also a possibility of metamorphosis. Doing this is a simple suicide."
"Then, we can also use the techniques to create things. Techniques are just like a recipe, a formula. We just need to know about the law of the real object and then we can change the recipe to get different effects. But creating a technique is not easy at all. Not even I am able to create a Rank one technique. Forget about me, even the clan leader is not able to create a technique."
When the kids heard this, they were shocked.
"Is he for real? Even the clan leader is not able to create a Rank one technique?"
"Are they really that difficult to create?"
"These techniques even affect our bodies. They are really dangerous."
"Yes, you are right. They can be said to be a double-edged sword."
"And is it really possible to become a spirit with the overuse of these techniques?"
"I don't know, but even if it is possible, he said that the chance of becoming a spirit is one in a hundred thousandth. So, I would never try to see if it is real or not."
Everyone started to discuss what the elder had just said. These things were really surprising to them.
On the other hand, Yang Zhai was silently sitting near his table and was listening to them. He already knew about all these things, in fact, he knew even more than the elder ever could in his entire life.
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Author's Note: It is recommended that you read these chapters carefully as these few chapters are important.