The Refinement Path was broad in the cultivation world, including the refinements of the Kas, treasures, pills, medicines, and many more things.
There were many ways to refine these things. But there were also unorthodox methods to refine them. One such method was human refinement. It was considered the evil and most ruthless method of all.
This method was strictly forbidden to be even talked about, not even to warn anyone. Every major sect and clan tried to hide human refinement from the world. They did not want to take the chance of raising someone's curiosity about this refinement, which may lead to unexpected problems. In this method, the humans were sacrificed to refine the materials.
When human refinement was used, no other refinement methods were needed.
And what was even more dangerous was that this method was not just limited to only one procedure. There were many ways to refine a Ka with this method. Like, such as cutting the body whilst keeping the person alive and then stuffing the materials in the body, after which sacrificing the body to refine the Ka and many more methods.
What Yang Zhai was using right now was a human refinement method, as he didn't have the formations or other things to refine a Ka.
A formation was considered one of the best methods to refine a Ka, or using other Kas to refine Kas, treasures, pills, etc. And then there were certain kinds of elements, like certain fires, that could be used to refine. Even the water, earth, and other elements were used to refine, but they were extremely rarer to find or highly difficult to use. As Yang Zhai did not have any of these things to refine, such as formations, elements, or Kas, he could only use human refinement.
This was also one of the reasons he must use humans to refine the Strength Ka.
When Yang Zhai was done placing the Ice-Fire cubes around the pit, he stopped. He went back and picked up another mixture that he had concocted two days ago. This mixture was in glass bottles. There were two bottles of this mixture. Its color was dark black with some green lines floating in.
"You two, don't worry, when I make you drink this mixture, you will fall conscious. The mixture that I gave you before was not just to make you unable to move, but was one of the materials needed for the refinement. To make it easier for me, I concocted that material into a mixture that could be easier to use and could also make you unable to move." Yang Zhai continued,
"But, it was not the end. The material that you drank before in the form of a mixture was only one part. The second part is with me, the mixture that I am holding now. It is also a material needed for the refinement."
"When I make you drink this liquid, it will begin to react with the mixture that I gave you before, combining and completing the two mixtures into one. After they both mix, Ice-Fire cubes will begin to react to it. The aura that the mixed mixture will exude will make your body and the mind react as well, making you fall unconscious. So, you both should be thankful." While Yang Zhai said this, he made the two drink the second mixture. As they were unable to move, it was easy for Yang Zhai to put the liquid into their mouths.
When he did this, both of them felt something strange in their bodies. After a few seconds, their bodies began to tremble a little. Both the boy and the girl felt pain in their bodies, but they could not scream or move their bodies. Then they saw a blue wisp flying toward them from the side. But a few seconds later, they felt their consciousness fading away, and they fainted.
On the other hand, the blue wisps began to increase in numbers. It was because the Ice-Fire cubes were reacting to the girl's and boy's bodies.
The Ice-Fire cubes began to melt and turn into water, whilst the fire in the cubes started to turn blue and flew towards the boy and the girl, who were lying in the pit. The Ice-Fire cubes were placed in the four directions of the pit, so the blue fire was coming toward the boy and the girl from the four directions. When the fire approached the bodies, its intensity increased. It began to use their bodies as fuel, but strangely their bodies were fine. It seemed like the boy's and the girl's bodies were burning away, but if one looked closer, there was not even a scratch on their bodies. It was because of the attribute of the Ice-Fire cube. There was water in the pit that had appeared because of the ice —from the Ice-Fire cubes— melting. Even though the ice and fire contradicted each other, the Ice-Fire cube was a material that contained both ice and fire in harmony. Therefore, as long as the water that was melted from the Ice-Fire cubes was covering the boy and the girl, their bodies would not burn away and would stay safe.
This was the reason Yang Zhai had chosen the Ice-Fire cubes in his modified method of the Strength Ka. He needed to keep both the boy and the girl safe and alive until their souls were needed, and their bodies were necessary as the material.
And there was a reason Yang Zhai chose these two from the whole class; he remembered from his previous life that these two had more compatibility with fire and ice paths. The boy would have become an ice path cultivator and the girl would have become a fire path cultivator. This was the reason he chose these two from the class. And both of them were close and lived together; thus, it was easy for him to get two humans if he picked these two instead of the others. There were many other kids in the class that were compatible with ice and fire paths, but if he had chosen the other kids instead, he would be at a risk, and would also alert the others.
After he saw the fire increase in intensity, he hurriedly picked up Rank 2 Sharpening grass and threw in the blue fire. This was grass that was not discovered by the village yet. He had discovered this grass by an accident in his previous life. This grass had the ability to increase the power of the other materials. As he was going to refine a Rank 2 Strength Ka, he needed it.
When the grass was thrown into the fire, it began to burn and was being absorbed by the bodies of the girl and the boy, who were lying unconscious in the pit. This grass was easily burned because it was not touched by the water that was melted from the Ice-Fire cubes, so the property of the Ice-Fire cube was not affecting it.
The Ice-Fire cube's property of not burning something needed both the fire and the ice(Either in ice form or water). If the fire was missing, then the ice would freeze the things placed on it. And if the ice part was missing, then the fire would burn away whatever was thrown in it. As the bodies of the boy and the girl were touched by both the ice(that had now turned into water) and the fire, nothing happened to them, they didn't freeze or burn. But the Rank 2 Sharpening grass was only touched by the fire, so it burned and was absorbed in the bodies of the girl and the boy.
Yang Zhai then activated the Bloody-Storage Ka and a circular rock that was as big as a fist appeared in his left hand. This was a rank 1 material, known as Rocky Wall. This material was used in building stronger walls compared to the walls that were made of normal rocks. It was a tough rock. Yang Zhai had bought this from the clan's shop. He had also bought more than one, around six.
He didn't throw the rocks into the fire directly, as this material was tough, and it would take some time for the rocks to melt by the Ice-Fire. Thus, Yang Zhai activated the Wooden fists Ka and made both of his hands into wooden hands. After doing this, he picked two rocks from the Bloody-Storage Ka and began to whack both the rocks with each other. But they still didn't break. He was only whacking them against each other to see if they were strong enough according to his expectations.
When he saw that both the rocks were hard enough, he summoned a rope from the Bloody-Storage Ka. He then wrapped the rope around the rocks. This rope was also a Rank 1 material. This rope had a powerful ability to catch the fire even from a single spark, then it would begin to burn with an intensity stronger than even when the fuel was thrown into the fire. Yang Zhai also bought this rope from the clan's shop. It was known as Hell-Wood, because of its characteristic of catching fire.
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